Jack D. Sloan

Augusta – Mr. Jack D. Sloan, husband of Pearle Bowen Sloan and widower of the late Marie L. Sloan, entered into rest on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at Heartland Hospice.

Graveside services will be held on Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 11:00 AM at Hillcrest Memorial Park with the Rev. John Meyer of Belvedere First Baptist Church officiating. Full military honors will be accorded.

Jack Dewey Sloan was born in Moultrie, Georgia, the fourth son of William Dixon Sloan and Lena Alice McDonald Sloan. His brothers, Earnest, Ralph and Stanley, preceded him in death. While attending high school, he would stop by the Naval Recruiting station trying to enlist. They were taking several men a month, and he was well down on the list. One afternoon, a man failed his physical, and Jack was the only man immediately available. He passed his physical, was sworn in and on the train that evening. The date was October 15, 1935, and as he was underage, his mother signed the paperwork stating that he was seventeen.

In 1937, he met Marie L. Ervin, and they were married on January 12, 1938. They stayed married for 63 years, until her death on September 2, 2001. Their only child, Don, was born in 1940.

In 1941, he received orders to report on board the USS SWANSON DD443, which he served on for three years, seeing action in several theaters of WWII, with the ship earning eight Battle Stars. At war’s end, he was commanding officer of a rocket launching ship, the USS LSMR-501, headed for the invasion of Japan, when the atomic bomb ended the war.

In 1956, after seeing action in the Korean War, he was stationed in Augusta as Commanding Officer of the US Navy and Marine Reserve Center.

After his retirement from the Navy in 1959, he was hired as personnel manager by King Mill. In 1967, he was hired by United Merchants as personnel manager of Homestead Draperies. During this time, he became active in several civic and management organizations including Civitans of the CSRA, serving as secretary from 1963 to 1964, the American Society for Personnel Administration as president in 1973 and 1974, and helped found the Industrial Management Club, serving as president there in 1965.He also served on the CSRA Board of the Georgia Society for Crippled Children and Adults (Easter Seals). He retired in 1979, and traveled often with Marie.

He had many accomplishments, including his progression from the enlisted ranks to lieutenant, becoming one of the youngest in the Navy at that time. He wrote a highly acclaimed article for the US Naval Institute Proceedings entitled “Tugs and Pilots”, which was published in 1954, and wrote a brief for Georgia Employers of Textile Workers on Workman’s Compensation, which was published by the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association in Georgia.

He became active in the USS Swanson DD443 Association, and played a large part in writing the book Destroyer at War! In addition, he worked establishing a web site, and gathering artifacts for the Destroyer museum in Fall River, MA.

Jack was a member of Belvedere First Baptist Church, and a devoted husband to Marie, and Pearle. He felt blessed to have loved and been loved by two wonderful wives. He was a wonderful father, grandfather and great grandfather. He will be remembered as a man who was steadfast in his Christian faith, unconditionally loved by his family and a dutiful and patriotic citizen. He was the embodiment of the term “An officer and a gentleman”.

Survivors include his son, Don and wife, Carolyn, grandsons, Brian and wife, Tina, and Kevin and his wife, Angela, his great grandsons, Aaron, Blake, and Jackson Sloan and Noah Whitesell, his step daughter, Barbara Goff and step sons, Ladson Wright and Ronnie Hodges.

If so desired, memorials may be made to the Easter Seals of East Georgia, 1500 Wrightsboro Road, Augusta, Georgia, 30903.

The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday evening, July 31, 2009 from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM.