Robert Armstrong

HURST -- Jack Armstrong, 88, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Service: 11 AM Monday at St Barnabas Episcopal Church, 8425 Parkwood Hill Blvd, Fort Worth, TX (817) 938-7131. Burial: Emerald Hills Memorial Park, Kennedale.; Visitation: 5- 7 PM Saturday at Lucas Funeral Home, 1321 Precinct Line Road, Hurst, TX (817) 284 7271. Jack was born in Clinton, Oklahoma September 8, 1924. Around 1937 his father opened a one car showroom Ford dealership in Weatherford, Oklahoma where the family lived for many years and where Jack graduated from high school in 1942. After his eighteenth birthday that year, he and his brother Mack joined the U.S. Navy and reported for duty at the U.S. Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Illinois on January 1, 1943. Jack was assigned to the USS Holly, a net tender originally built to protect Boston Harbor, but now requisitioned by the Navy for duty in the South Pacific. During the war his ship won a battle star for extraordinary combat performance in the Marianas Islands. Their ship participated in most of the major Pacific battles from summer of 1943 to summer of 1945. At one point the Holly put in for repairs in Dunedin, New Zealand, where Jack rented a car from one of the locals and saw as much of the south island as possible. Jack was eventually put in charge of the engine room and acquired significant expertise in diesel engines. Upon return to the States at Long Beach, California, Jack was united with his high school sweetheart, Helen Gayle Gray. They were married July 7, 1945 in Long Beach. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, Jack and Gayle settled in Weatherford, Oklahoma and attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University for three years before transferring to Oklahoma A & M in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. There he studied diesel and fuel injection and was soon hired as a faculty member. On Saturdays he would conduct a one day workshop at car dealerships on how to overhaul an automatic transmission. In 1953, he and a partner opened their own business - Industrial Air & Hydraulics - in Ft.Worth. He and Gayle raised four children, Robert, Linda, Larry and Craig during their years in Ft. Worth where the family was very involved at Handley Methodist Church. Later, he would be involved in businesses in Mobile, Alabama and Mansfield, Texas where he retired in 1990. A lifelong avid fisherman, Jack enjoyed both fresh water and deep sea. From 1985 to 2000 he and Gayle entertained friends and relatives at their log home in Park County, Colorado. After 65 years of marriage, Gayle passed away in January 2011. Jack continued to enjoy lively conversation with everyone he met and remained a great fan of western movies. Survivors: three sons, Robert and wife Nancy of Arlington, Larry and wife Janey of Hurst, Craig and wife Gayle of Ft. Worth; one daughter, Linda Brown and husband Graham of Lexington; seven grandchildren, Jeff Smith of Burleson, Jill Fitch and husband Ray of McKinney, Carolina Armstrong of Highland Park, Kristie Ellison and husband Albert of Bastrop, Kate Foley and husband Michael of Ft. Worth, Kerrie Unruh and husband Jerred of Enid, OK., Kim Taylor and husband Daniel of Twenty Nine Palms, CA.; fifteen great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.