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{{template|This article was slightly edited from {{{site|Wikipedia}}} but the text was originally written by BHathorn (under the name) and does not include alterations made by others from that site.|background=#aff|category=Copied Articles}}
{{Infobox person
|name= George Whitfield Jack, Jr.
(High-profile Louisiana lawyer)
|birth_date=July 10, 1906
|birth_place=[[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
|death_date=April 23, 1989 (aged 82)
|death_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|death_cause=
|resting_place=Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport
|spouse=(1) Frances Rand Jack (married 1936-1974, her death)<br>
(2) Betty Ann Collins Montgomery Jack (married 1977-1989, his death)
|children=Whitfield Jack, III.<br>
Rand F. Jack<br>
Robert Blythe Jack
|parents= [[George W. Jack|George Whitfield Jack, Sr.]]<br>
Emily Roberta Pegues Jack
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
|alma_mater=Centenary College of Louisiana<br>
[[United States Military Academy]]<br>
[[Tulane University]] Law School<br>
[[Yale Law School]]
[[United States Army]] [[Colonel]] ([[World War II]])<br>
[[United States Army Reserve]] ([[Major general]], 1955-1966)
}}
'''George Whitfield Jack, Jr.''', known as '''Whitfield Jack''' or '''Whit Jack''' (July 10, 1906 – April 23, 1989),<ref name=jackfindagrave/> was a [[United States Army]] colonel in [[World War II]], a [[major general]] of the Army Reserve, and a prominent [[attorney]] in his native [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]].
Jack's father, George W. Jack, Sr.,, a native of [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana, was from 1917 to 1924 a U. S. District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana; his brother, [[Wellborn Jack]], was from 1940 to 1964 a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2012: Caddo Parish|publisher=house.louisiana.gov|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref> In World War II, Jack was a G-2 Intelligence Officer on the staff of [[General]] Matthew B. Ridgway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://genforum.genealogy.com/jack/messages/915.html|title=Jack 1730, Ireland to North Carolina, March 29, 2003|publisher=genforum.genealogy.com|accessdate=July 29, 2013}}</ref> From 1952 to 1960, he was the commander of the 75th Infantry Division of the Army Reserve.
==Background==
Jack graduated from the former Shreveport High School, prior to the opening of Clifton Ellis Byrd High School, and attended [[Methodist]]-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport, at which he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. In 1928, he graduated from the [[United States Military Academy]] at West Point, [[New York]]. He received a bachelor's degree and an Army commission as a second lieutenant. He then spent one year in the 9th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sam Houston in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]].<ref name=bio/>
He resigned from the Army to attend [[Yale Law School]] in New Haven, [[Connecticut]], but left Yale for his father's alma mater, the [[Tulane University]] Law School in [[New Orleans]] so that he could take courses needed for admission to the Louisiana bar. He then returned to Yale for his third and final year of law school and procured the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1932.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://apps.westpointaog.org/Memorials/Article/8366/|title=Whitfield Jack (Class of 1928)|publisher=[[United States Military Academy]]|location=West Point, [[New York]]|date=October 30, 1989|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
==Career==
Admitted to the bar by the Louisiana Supreme Court, Jack practiced from 1932 until his legal retirement in 1979. During his early years, his brother, Wellborn Jack, was his law partner. His last legal partnership was Booth, Lockard, Jack, Pleasant, and Lesage; the latter partner, Joseph Carnahan "Joe" LeSage, Jr. (1928-2015), was a one-term member of the state Senate from 1968 to 1972. From 1929, except for a brief period as a Louisiana National Guardsman, Jack held a commission in either the regular Army or the Army Reserve until his military retirement in 1966.<ref name=bio/>
Jack's grandfather, Colonel William H. Jack, was a soldier and lawyer; an uncle, Robert Foster, was a career Army officer. In November 1940, following in their pariths, Jack was named a captain and then a company commander, major, and lieutenant colonel in the redesigned 82nd Airborne Division. He became a battalion commander when the 82nd was dispatched to North Africa in 1943 as part of the [[Mediterranean]] Theater of Operations. He [[parachute]]d into [[Italy]] in the campaign to "soften up" the [[Fascist]] resistance. He also fought in [[Sicily]], [[England]], and [[Normandy]], [[France]],<ref name=bio/> in which he had been part of the glider assault that preceded the main invasion.<ref name=jackfindagrave/>
After Normandy, General Ridgway assumed command of the XVIII Airborne Corps, which moved into the European Theater of Operations. By then a colonel, Jack fought in the [[Battle of the Bulge]] and proceeded to the [[North Sea]]. In April 1945, Ridgway selected Jack to deliver under a flag of truce an [[ultimatum]] of surrender to German Field Marshal Walter Model, whose army was trapped in the Ruhr Valley. Ridgway compared Model's situation to that of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] General [[Robert E. Lee]] in 1865, when Lee surrendered to [[U.S. Grant]]. Unlike Lee, Model refused to surrender out of personal honor but instead discharged his troops and made then civilian prisoners of war and refugees before he took his own life. Jack returned to bring to notify General Ridgway that Model refusal to surrender.<ref name=jackfindagrave>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Jack&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=24992428&df=all&
|title=Gen. Whitfield Jack|author=John Andrew Prime |date=March 2, 2008|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
Jack received the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the [[Bronze Star]], the European Theatre of Operations Medal with six campaign stars, the [[France|French]] Croix de Guerre, and the Belgium War Cross with palms. In January 1946, Jack left active Army duty and returned to Shreveport to resume his law practice and serve in the Army Reserve. In April 1948, he was promoted to U.S. Army brigadier general. Thereafter, he was the division commander of the 95th Infantry Division Reserve over the three-state area of [[Arkansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and Louisiana. He was then named division commander of the 75th Infantry Division. In May 1955, Jack was promoted to his terminal position of major general. Two years later, he assumed command of the 75th Maneuver Area Command with headquarters in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas, and a component group in Shreveport. Jack was affiliated with the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.<ref name=bio/>
One of Jack's clients was the Shreveport pastor [[Jimmy Tharpe]] of the Baptist Tabernacle, an [[Independent Baptist]] congregation. Tharpe retained Jack to appear before the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], which was investigating its sale of church bonds. A government administrator in [[Fort Worth], Texas, had told Tharpe that the church had two weeks before it must declare [[bankruptcy]], but Jack's trip quickly resolved the matter.<ref>Jimmy G. Tharpe, Sr., ''Mr. Baptist'' (Springfield, [[Missouri]]: 21st Century Press, 2003), pp. 71-74.</ref>
==Personal life==
In March 1936, Jack wed the former Frances Rand of [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]], Louisiana, a daughter of Dr. Paul King Rand, Sr. (born 1888), and the former Ellen Blythe White (1890-1972).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clementinehunterartist.com/INTERLUDES-SEQ/interlude-2.html|title="Happy Landing"|publisher=clementinehunterartist.com|accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref>
The Whitfields had three sons, Whitfield, III (born 1937), a jewelry manufacturer in [[Key West]], [[Florida]]; Rand F. Jack (born c. 1940), a [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and Yale Law School graduate and a college professor in Bellingham Washington]] State, and Robert Blythe Jack (born c. 1943), an attorney in [[Palo Alto]], [[California]]. In 1977, three years after the death of Frances,<ref name=bio/> Jack married Betty Ann Collins Montgomery (1930-2010), formerly known as Betty Sims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Jack&GSfn=Betty&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=53542722&df=all&|title=Betty Ann Collins Jack|publisher=findagrave.com|date=June 11, 2010|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
Jack was a long-term member of St. Marks [[Episcopal]] Church in Shreveport. He died in the spring of 1989 at the age of eighty-two and is interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref name=bio/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jack, Whitfield}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
{{Infobox person
|name= George Whitfield Jack, Jr.
(High-profile Louisiana lawyer)
|birth_date=July 10, 1906
|birth_place=[[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
|death_date=April 23, 1989 (aged 82)
|death_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|death_cause=
|resting_place=Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport
|spouse=(1) Frances Rand Jack (married 1936-1974, her death)<br>
(2) Betty Ann Collins Montgomery Jack (married 1977-1989, his death)
|children=Whitfield Jack, III.<br>
Rand F. Jack<br>
Robert Blythe Jack
|parents= [[George W. Jack|George Whitfield Jack, Sr.]]<br>
Emily Roberta Pegues Jack
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
|alma_mater=Centenary College of Louisiana<br>
[[United States Military Academy]]<br>
[[Tulane University]] Law School<br>
[[Yale Law School]]
[[United States Army]] [[Colonel]] ([[World War II]])<br>
[[United States Army Reserve]] ([[Major general]], 1955-1966)
}}
'''George Whitfield Jack, Jr.''', known as '''Whitfield Jack''' or '''Whit Jack''' (July 10, 1906 – April 23, 1989),<ref name=jackfindagrave/> was a [[United States Army]] colonel in [[World War II]], a [[major general]] of the Army Reserve, and a prominent [[attorney]] in his native [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]].
Jack's father, George W. Jack, Sr.,, a native of [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana, was from 1917 to 1924 a U. S. District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana; his brother, [[Wellborn Jack]], was from 1940 to 1964 a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://house.louisiana.gov/H_PDFdocs/HouseMembership_History_CURRENT.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2012: Caddo Parish|publisher=house.louisiana.gov|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref> In World War II, Jack was a G-2 Intelligence Officer on the staff of [[General]] Matthew B. Ridgway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://genforum.genealogy.com/jack/messages/915.html|title=Jack 1730, Ireland to North Carolina, March 29, 2003|publisher=genforum.genealogy.com|accessdate=July 29, 2013}}</ref> From 1952 to 1960, he was the commander of the 75th Infantry Division of the Army Reserve.
==Background==
Jack graduated from the former Shreveport High School, prior to the opening of Clifton Ellis Byrd High School, and attended [[Methodist]]-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport, at which he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. In 1928, he graduated from the [[United States Military Academy]] at West Point, [[New York]]. He received a bachelor's degree and an Army commission as a second lieutenant. He then spent one year in the 9th Infantry Regiment at Fort Sam Houston in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]].<ref name=bio/>
He resigned from the Army to attend [[Yale Law School]] in New Haven, [[Connecticut]], but left Yale for his father's alma mater, the [[Tulane University]] Law School in [[New Orleans]] so that he could take courses needed for admission to the Louisiana bar. He then returned to Yale for his third and final year of law school and procured the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1932.<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://apps.westpointaog.org/Memorials/Article/8366/|title=Whitfield Jack (Class of 1928)|publisher=[[United States Military Academy]]|location=West Point, [[New York]]|date=October 30, 1989|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
==Career==
Admitted to the bar by the Louisiana Supreme Court, Jack practiced from 1932 until his legal retirement in 1979. During his early years, his brother, Wellborn Jack, was his law partner. His last legal partnership was Booth, Lockard, Jack, Pleasant, and Lesage; the latter partner, Joseph Carnahan "Joe" LeSage, Jr. (1928-2015), was a one-term member of the state Senate from 1968 to 1972. From 1929, except for a brief period as a Louisiana National Guardsman, Jack held a commission in either the regular Army or the Army Reserve until his military retirement in 1966.<ref name=bio/>
Jack's grandfather, Colonel William H. Jack, was a soldier and lawyer; an uncle, Robert Foster, was a career Army officer. In November 1940, following in their pariths, Jack was named a captain and then a company commander, major, and lieutenant colonel in the redesigned 82nd Airborne Division. He became a battalion commander when the 82nd was dispatched to North Africa in 1943 as part of the [[Mediterranean]] Theater of Operations. He [[parachute]]d into [[Italy]] in the campaign to "soften up" the [[Fascist]] resistance. He also fought in [[Sicily]], [[England]], and [[Normandy]], [[France]],<ref name=bio/> in which he had been part of the glider assault that preceded the main invasion.<ref name=jackfindagrave/>
After Normandy, General Ridgway assumed command of the XVIII Airborne Corps, which moved into the European Theater of Operations. By then a colonel, Jack fought in the [[Battle of the Bulge]] and proceeded to the [[North Sea]]. In April 1945, Ridgway selected Jack to deliver under a flag of truce an [[ultimatum]] of surrender to German Field Marshal Walter Model, whose army was trapped in the Ruhr Valley. Ridgway compared Model's situation to that of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] General [[Robert E. Lee]] in 1865, when Lee surrendered to [[U.S. Grant]]. Unlike Lee, Model refused to surrender out of personal honor but instead discharged his troops and made then civilian prisoners of war and refugees before he took his own life. Jack returned to bring to notify General Ridgway that Model refusal to surrender.<ref name=jackfindagrave>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Jack&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScnty=1117&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=24992428&df=all&
|title=Gen. Whitfield Jack|author=John Andrew Prime |date=March 2, 2008|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
Jack received the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the [[Bronze Star]], the European Theatre of Operations Medal with six campaign stars, the [[France|French]] Croix de Guerre, and the Belgium War Cross with palms. In January 1946, Jack left active Army duty and returned to Shreveport to resume his law practice and serve in the Army Reserve. In April 1948, he was promoted to U.S. Army brigadier general. Thereafter, he was the division commander of the 95th Infantry Division Reserve over the three-state area of [[Arkansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and Louisiana. He was then named division commander of the 75th Infantry Division. In May 1955, Jack was promoted to his terminal position of major general. Two years later, he assumed command of the 75th Maneuver Area Command with headquarters in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas, and a component group in Shreveport. Jack was affiliated with the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.<ref name=bio/>
One of Jack's clients was the Shreveport pastor [[Jimmy Tharpe]] of the Baptist Tabernacle, an [[Independent Baptist]] congregation. Tharpe retained Jack to appear before the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], which was investigating its sale of church bonds. A government administrator in [[Fort Worth], Texas, had told Tharpe that the church had two weeks before it must declare [[bankruptcy]], but Jack's trip quickly resolved the matter.<ref>Jimmy G. Tharpe, Sr., ''Mr. Baptist'' (Springfield, [[Missouri]]: 21st Century Press, 2003), pp. 71-74.</ref>
==Personal life==
In March 1936, Jack wed the former Frances Rand of [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]], Louisiana, a daughter of Dr. Paul King Rand, Sr. (born 1888), and the former Ellen Blythe White (1890-1972).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clementinehunterartist.com/INTERLUDES-SEQ/interlude-2.html|title="Happy Landing"|publisher=clementinehunterartist.com|accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref>
The Whitfields had three sons, Whitfield, III (born 1937), a jewelry manufacturer in [[Key West]], [[Florida]]; Rand F. Jack (born c. 1940), a [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and Yale Law School graduate and a college professor in Bellingham Washington]] State, and Robert Blythe Jack (born c. 1943), an attorney in [[Palo Alto]], [[California]]. In 1977, three years after the death of Frances,<ref name=bio/> Jack married Betty Ann Collins Montgomery (1930-2010), formerly known as Betty Sims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Jack&GSfn=Betty&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=53542722&df=all&|title=Betty Ann Collins Jack|publisher=findagrave.com|date=June 11, 2010|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
Jack was a long-term member of St. Marks [[Episcopal]] Church in Shreveport. He died in the spring of 1989 at the age of eighty-two and is interred at Forest Park East Cemetery in Shreveport.<ref name=bio/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jack, Whitfield}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]