John ""Jack"" Burton Jackson

John Burton Jackson, Sr., age 90, died at home on Thursday, October 15, 2015. The cause was congestive heart failure. John, known as ""Jack"" by his family and friends, was born December 31, 1924, in Trinidad, Colorado. Jack was a third generation Coloradan. Both of his grandfathers worked in the coal mines near Trinidad. His parents, Joseph Warren Jackson, Sr. and Lavinia Raite Jackson, and his two older siblings, Joseph Warren Jackson, Jr. and Beverly Jackson Agnew, predeceased him. The Jackson family moved to the Washington Park neighborhood in Denver, Colorado in 1933, and Jack considered Denver his hometown. Although Jack grew up during the ""Great Depression,"" he described his childhood in idyllic terms. He loved to play in Washington Park with his friends. They played tennis in the summers and ice-skated on the lakes in the winters. Jack loved to snow ski and rode the ski train from Denver to Winter Park. He played golf with his father in both the summer and winter. Jack graduated from South High School in 1942, and began college at the University of Denver in the fall of 1942. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in April of 1943. He flew 32 missions as a B-26 Marauder pilot, in the 9th Air Force, 387th Bomb Group, Squadron 557. His first mission was air support for the Battle of the Bulge, Christmas Eve, 1944. After the war, Jack attended college at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and in 1950 earned a distributed degree in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Jack had a storied career in the aerospace industry. He began his career at the Los Alamos Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1950, where he developed programming code for the first stored program computer, MANIAC. In 1954, while pursuing a PHD in Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, Jack was recruited to IBM. Jack went on to become President of IBM's aerospace division, known as the Federal Systems Division (FSD). During Jack's years at FSD, IBM was an integral player in the aerospace and military technology industries. During his time, FSD teams developed computer systems that included the NAVSTAR-Global Positioning System (GPS), and on-board and ground support systems for NASA's space program from Mercury through the Space Shuttle. Jack retired from IBM in 1984 to ski and play golf. Jack is survived by 5 children: Lisa (John) Ourisman, John (Linda) Jackson, Kris (Tom) Duderstadt, David (Lynne) Jackson, and Lauris (Michael) Geheren. He leaves behind 13 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. Jack taught his children and grandchildren to ski, and instilled in them a love of the mountains and his native Colorado. Cremation will take place October 21, 2015. A private family ceremony and a scattering of the ashes will take place at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Jack's name to the Wounded Warrior Project, PO Box 75817, Topeka, KS 66675. Please share condolences below in the guestbook. The family thanks you for your condolences.