Jack A. Pearson
Jack A. Pearson, 85, passed away peacefully on November 9, 2020 at Edward Hospital in Naperville, IL. He is survived by the love of his life, his wife Marilyn Pearson, his son Allen (Rosemary) Pearson, daughter Elizabeth Pearson and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Alfred and Eunice Pearson, his twin sister Joan Hallagan, and older sister, Norma Thule. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Dolton, Illinois, graduating from Thornton Township High School.
Jack was a proud graduate of Purdue University, BS in Economics, minor in Math, class of 1957. He left graduate school at Purdue to take a job with the Federal Reserve. He left the Federal Reserve when the United States Army sent him greetings. Jack served in Germany and his active duty service was extended during the Berlin Wall crisis in 1962. Jack fondly recalled his time in the Army, and it instilled in him a love of travel, as he was traveled throughout Europe during his service. He was particularly fond of London. After returning home, he worked at U.S. Gypsum, where he met his wife of 57 years Marilyn. He went on to work for GATX as a Manager of Data Applications. Jack and Marilyn settled in Woodridge, IL in January 1965, buying a home in the Winston Hills subdivision. Finding Woodridge a wonderful place to raise a family, he never left. And he never lost his love of learning. He was proud to watch the library grow into what it is today. Over the years he enjoyed their music programs and lectures. He was a lifelong Cubs fan who spent many afternoons watching the team on good old channel 9. He finally got to see them win the World Series in 2016.
He devoured books on Civil War history, physics, astronomy, climate science as well as many works of fiction. He continued his love of travel, trying to visit every National Park, particularly enjoying Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. He also visited many Civil War battlefields including Gettysburg and Appomattox. Jack’s strong sense of Social Justice has been passed to his children. His family will miss him deeply.
In lieu of flowers, his family request donations be made in his honor to his alma mater, Purdue University. Funeral services will be private due to Covid. A celebration of life will be held when we can safely gather together. Arrangements entrusted to Hallowell & James Funeral Home 630-964-6500
I’m so sorry for your loss. I hold you all in my heart.
Such a great man. You must be overflowing with wonderful memories.
Cheers to a life well lived.
We will always remember the great times we had with Jack and family on our Thanksgiving meals we all shared together. Always had a great story to tell us, and loved to talk about old movies with my wife and mom.
My favorite memory is the Christmas we each bought the other the very same book by Barbara Kingsolver as a gift. When he opened his gift he was sure that someone got things mixed up and put the wrong name on the gift. The way to convince him it wasn’t a mistake was that the copy I purchased for him was autographed by the author. This wasn’t the last time this happened ☺.
So sorry to hear this. It sounds like he certainly loved you and your family. Losing a parent is so traumatic yet he will be with you every day in your memories. It is OK to talk to him. I talk to my family that have gone before me. He will hear you and sometimes get answers from angels. God bless and you are in our prayers.
Marilyn, and children. I am so sad to hear of Jacks passing. He was such a knowledgeable person. He shared so much information on his Mother’s family, The Martins. They were also my fathers family. I made a couple of trips to Missouri to meet him and Marilyn at the reunions. I will miss our phone conversations about the family, football, theater, books, and politics. I hope he was able to vote in the last election. It was so important to him. Sheila Martin Melson, Chandler, Oklahoma
21 Dec 2020 Winter begins
Elizabeth,
My condolences to you on the death of your father and my friend.
Jack was my first boss at GATX when I started in July 1970 in what we called then: Data Processing.
Turned out, I learned, Jack had written many of the programs we maintained while employed by “Masteck”, a computer programming consulting company, that GATX had hired to write COBOL programs to support among other business functions, our “mileage system”.
GATX business was owning and leasing of railcars, mostly tank cars, for which the railroads paid GATX for the “miles they were pulled”. GATX wanted to be able to audit these payments.
GATX thought these programs Jack wrote were so good they offered him a job.
When I started, I was a member of Jack’s team of about 6 or so programmers. We were located down a hallway that opened into a work area for 4 desks that was flanked by 4 offices- all windowless.
We all later moved to an open area and offices that had windows. Life was good.
Your Dad got me promoted to Technical Support, a job I continued with for about 30 years until I retired from GATX in 2001.
Jack and I were friends while we worked together for many years. “Data Processing” stopped using punched cards and began using video terminals for programming and we renamed ourselves Information Technology (“IT”) and got newer, bigger mainframe computers.
About 1980 GATX upper management brought in an outside IT leadership Group. A guy called Norps was our direct boss. At the introduction meeting of Norps and all of the resentful GATX programmers and their managers, your Dad spoke for all of us when he said, “I was here before you came and I’ll be here after you’re gone.” He was right; that outside IT leadership Group lasted less than 5 years.
Your father is fondly remembered,
Warren Henske