Jack Aldrid Vickers Jr.

A Colorado native, Jack A. Vickers was born in Colorado Springs on August 8, 1925. The eldest son of Jack A. Vickers Sr. and Helen E. Brown Vickers, he was one of eight children (four brothers and three sisters). At the age of 14, Vickers entered Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Upon graduation from Cascia Hall, Jack entered summer school at Regis College in Denver. Two months later has was drafted and entered the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served for 3 ½ years during World War II.

Upon receiving hiss honorable discharge from the U.S. Coast Guard, Jack pursued higher education at the University of Oklahoma. After serious consideration, he dropped out of school to pursue a career in the oil and gas business. In 1946, Vickers joined Vickers Petroleum Corporations, founded by his father in 1918, and was an oil scout for about six months. He then resigned to start his own independent oil and gas royalty business. In 1949, in addition to the royalty business, he became a vice president of Vickers Petroleum and worked in the land department. In 1951, he was promoted to president of Vickers Petroleum at the age of 26.

Vickers was very active in the petroleum industry in Kansas, serving as Chairman of the Kansas Governor's Oil and Gas Advisory Council and was named Oil Man of the Year in 1957. He was the second member of the Wichita Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). In 1958, Vickers moved to Denver and became the first member of the Colorado Chapter of YPO, and Esquire magazine named Vickers as one of America's 16 Bright Young Men in Business.

In 1966, Vickers acquired Bell Oil and Gas Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma and became chairman of the board of Bell. In 1968, Vickers/Bell was sold to Swift & Company. At this time, Swift was the 15th largest corporation in the United States and employed approximately 80.000 employees, operating 600+ diversified industrial plants. Vickers was elected to the Swift Board of Directors and the Executive Committee and headed the Petroleum Group, consisting of Bell Oil and Gas and Vickers Petroleum. Swift subsequently purchased Trans-Ocean Oil of New Orleans, La. In 1973, these three companies were merged into Vickers Energy Corporation (formerly Vickers Petroleum) and, again, Vickers was named chairman of the board and elected to the board of directors and the executive committee of Esmark, formerly known as Swift. Vickers remained chairman of the board of Vickers Energy until 1980, when it was sold to Mobil Oil, Total Petroleum and Petro-Lewis.

A love of golf led to his acquisition of land and the founding of Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colo. Jack Nicklaus was engaged to be the architect of the Castle Pines Golf Club course, which was completed in the summer of 1980 and was home to the world-renowned The INTERNATIONAL golf tournament. one of the leading events and the first $1 million tournament on the PGA TOUR for 21 years. In addition to the Castle Pines Golf Cub, Vickers has been a founding member of several other golf courses and had many active golf and country club memberships across the country including the famed Augusta National.

Vickers has served on numerous boards, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, PGA of America. The International Charities Inc. and the Jack A. Vickers Foundation. He was also the former chairman and majority owner of the Colorado Rockies, the first National Hockey League team in Denver and the organizer and president of the University of Colorado’s Flatirons Club, a major athletic fundraising organization of the University, for 19 years.

Vickers has been honored with many awards, including Golf Person of the Year in 1985 by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, the Bob Kirchner Award in 1994 from the Colorado Open for his contributions to the game of golf, induction into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2003, he received the esteemed Ambassador of Golf Award presented together by Northern Ohio Golf Charities and the PGA TOUR. In 2006, Vickers was inducted into the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau Hall of Fame.

In 1948, Jack married Doris H. Vickers formerly of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They had seven children Jack A. Vickers III, Lindsey Vickers, Nancy (Richard) Berman, Susan Vickers, Gary (Kerry) Vickers, Gregory Vickers; and six grandchildren – Alexandra Vickers, Alan Vickers, Justin Vickers, Sean Vickers, Caitlin Vickers, Hutch Greaves.

In 1976, Jack married Carolyn “Cally” Coleman Vickers. formerly of Wichita, Kansas. His extended family includes three step children, Becky (Doug) Neuman, Bobby Rounds, Cooper Rounds and six step grandchildren J. Cooper Rounds, Jessica Rounds, Alex Neuman, Carolyn Neuman, Hutton Rounds, Hailey Rounds.

Memorial Services will be held on October 12th @ 11 A.M. at St. Thomas Moore Catholic Parish in Centennial, Colorado.

Donations can be made in Jack’s honor to Catholic Charities (Archdiocese of Denver), 6240 Smith Road, Denver, Colorado 80216 or the Jack A. Vickers Boys & Girls Club, 3365 Holly Street, Denver, Colorado 80207.

Please share memories of Jack and condolences with his family in the Guestbook.

Memorial Service: October 12, 2018 11:00 am

S. Thomas More Catholic Church
8035 S Quebec Street
Englewood, CO 80112
(303) 770-1155