Jack Phelps
Memorial services to celebrate the life of Jack Phelps will be held Friday, March 11, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma, with Rev. Lynn Brack officiating and under the direction of Lockstone Funeral Home.
Jack was born 90 years ago in the Oklahoma Panhandle on February 15, 1926, in Guymon, Oklahoma. He was the 7th of 8 children of Ewing Williams (E.W.) and Nettie Amelia (Foreman) Phelps. He died March 7, 2016, at Corn Heritage Village in Weatherford, Oklahoma.
He began public school in a one-room country school, helped his parents on the family farm at Hardesty, Oklahoma, and survived the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
In 1936, because nothing was growing and there were no jobs, his parents moved the family to Mancos, Colorado, which he remembered as paradise on earth. In 1938, his family left Mancos to return to Oklahoma, where they lived on his granddad’s farm for a year or two, until they were able to reacquire their original farm.
Somehow his soul and mind endured this tough childhood, and Jack grew up loving nature, animals, art, music, reading, learning, inquiry and critical thinking.
Jack graduated from high school in Perryton, Texas, in 1943. While there, he enjoyed playing football, basketball, and tennis, but he fell in love with mathematics.
With the country at war, and after one semester at Panhandle Agricultural and Mechanical College in Goodwell, Oklahoma, Jack volunteered for the Army Air Force. Because he was 17 years old, he had to wait to turn 18 to be inducted. He was honorably discharged as a Corporal in October, 1945.
He returned to college in Goodwell, majored in Mathematics and Mary Glenn Hale, and married her on May 28, 1946, in Guymon, Oklahoma. She shared life with him for over 69 years and filled his eyes, smiles, heart and soul with love his entire life. He often said she was the best thing that ever happened to him.
After earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics in 1948, Jack taught and coached at Griggs, Oklahoma; Turpin, Oklahoma; and Baker, Oklahoma. He also served as principal or superintendent at those schools. In Baker, he experienced the thrill of coaching his six-man football team to a state championship.
Somewhere along the way, he began to realize that the ability to teach is a gift, and throughout his career, he nurtured that belief and shared it with others. His students benefitted.
Also, during the summers, he earned a Master’s of Science Degree in Education in 1954 from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado.
He and Mary had four children, whom they cherished. They moved those four children to Stillwater, Oklahoma, so Jack could attend graduate school at Oklahoma State University. He graduated in 1963 with a Doctorate in Mathematics Education and taught three years at Southwestern State College in Weatherford, Oklahoma, before moving in 1966 to Alva, Oklahoma, to assume the Chairmanship of the Mathematics Department at Northwestern State University and teach a full course load as a Professor of Mathematics.
After a two-year sabbatical leave to serve as a Visiting Professor at OSU, he returned in 1981 to his Professorship at Northwestern, where he taught until retiring in 1986.
Throughout his career, Jack enjoyed leading mathematics workshops for teachers around the country. His favorite locale was Ketchikan, Alaska.
He also conducted research and published. He was most proud of his book, Elementary Mathematics - Theory and Practice, published in 1970.
Retirement led Jack and Mary back to Weatherford, where he enjoyed making art, teaching mathematics as an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, building furniture, traveling, continuing to write poetry, and being with his beloved family.
His last days were medically difficult, but he never lost his wit, his love for his family, or his faith. His family has many good memories of humorous things and wonderful prayers he said in their presence.
Jack is survived by his best friend and wife of 69 years, Mary, of their home in Weatherford, Oklahoma; three daughters: Jackie Duncan and husband David of Weatherford, Oklahoma; Judy Zehr and husband
Joel of Weatherford, Oklahoma; Janet Phelps and husband David Landreth of Houston, Texas; one son, Jon Phelps of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; three grandchildren: Jordan Zehr of Austin, Texas, Logan Phelps and Erin Phelps of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; one sister, Louise Smith of Conroe, Texas; and numerous nieces and nephews and their families. He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers, James, Ray, Robert, and Clifford; and two sisters, Gladys and Grace.
(Paid obituary)