Son of Albert I. and Gertrude Eleanor (McGowan) Stoddard of Hoquiam, Washington
Grandson of Elijah Willard and Betty (Miller) Stoddard of Rapid City, Iowa
Great-grandson of Wells and Eunice (Benedict) Stoddard of Marion twp., Linn County, Iowa.
John Spencer "Jack" Stoddard was born at Spokane, Washington on May 13, 1917. He married Barbara Lois Bailey at Aberdeen, Washington on July 4, 1943.
His parents, Albert I. Stoddard and Gertrude Eleanor McGowan were married April 16, 1912 in Spokane, WA. Before Jack was born, the couple first lost a set of twins (born stillborn) in April 1913, and then a daughter, Betty Stoddard, was born on December 21, 1914.
According to Jack's father's WWI military registration, the family had relocated from Spokane to Bellingham, WA by September 1918. Jack's father was working as a "Storehouse man" for Pacific American Fisheries in Bellingham In September 1918. That job must not have lasted for too long...as the family soon moved to Hoquiam, WA circa 1920. Another son, William Redmond, was then born in Hoquiam in January 1923.
Initially after arriving in Hoquiam, Jack's father may have enjoyed some years of stable employment...and there were hopefully some years of quiet family unity and happiness. Naturally this is wishful speculation. The death of Jack's older sister Betty, in 1924, at the age of 10, likely had a profound effect on the couple and the family. Their marriage probably began to fray about this time.
According to the obituary in the Aberdeen Daily World (July 17, 1951, p.6) for Albert I. Stoddard, who died on July 16, 1951, from information most likely provided by Jack Stoddard, Albert in his "early years" on Grays Harbor worked as a "chef at various restaurants, including the Savoy and Smoke Shop (on Heron Street in Aberdeen), and later operated a malt shop in Hoquiam." Albert was probably a short order cook at these "restaurants" establishments and not necessarily a "chef." This was likely soon after the family first arrived from Bellingham circa 1920. A photo of Jack and his father in the malt shop in Hoquiam circa 1929, when Jack was approximately 12 years old, is uploaded to this memorial.
The Stoddard's tended to move residences with more than the normal frequently. Jack's Dad apparently had bad luck with the malt shop and trouble keeping gainful employment. The Great Depression came in 1929 — which added discouragement to an already difficult time for his father. In 1930, Albert worked as a salesman for National Paper in Hoquiam. By 1940 he was a simple laborer working on a WPA (Works Progress Administration — a "New Deal" work program) district project in Hoquiam. It was said Albert had a drinking problem. It was also said his wife drove him to drink. In the 1940 U.S. Census the couple is found living together at Hoquiam but he and Gertrude soon separated. As Gertrude was a staunch Catholic, they never divorced. In a nutshell, Jack had a difficult childhood and unstable upbringing. Jack ultimately persevered through it all. His love of sports, and his close relationships with his childhood friends, Ed Smith (Memorial #149984207), John Frodel (Memorial #118867828), and Chester "Chet" Bergeron (Memorial #111858483) among others, helped Jack cope with his unstable home situation, an alcoholic father and a difficult mother.
Jack was a 1935 graduate of Hoquiam High School. Jack was on the track team his senior year but he did not play on the basketball squad. If he tried-out for the Hoquiam High School basketball team and didn't make the squad - he never made excuses about it or complained about it. He just kept on playing basketball with his friends at the Y.M.C.A.
After high school, Jack took a year off and in the fall of 1936 attended Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, WA. He was a standout guard on the GHC basketball team coached by Ken Flora during both the 1936-37 and 1937-38 seasons. He also played softball in 1937. He was a three sport athlete in 1937-38 as a member of the basketball, track and softball teams. Jack's specialties in track were the hurdles and the high jump.
In 1937, Jack and his Hoquiam Y.M.C.A. basketball buddies, each individually sponsored by a local Hoquiam business, travelled to Williamsport, PA and participated in the Y.M.C.A. National Tournament, taking sixth place. Jack was a standout player in the competition. A photo of the team together in uniform is posted to this memorial.
Jack then attended Central Washington College in Ellensburg, WA (CWCE). He was a member of both the basketball and track teams in 1938-39. He returned to Central in 1939 and was a standout on the 1939-40 Washington intercollegiate basketball championship team coached by Leo Nicholson. He attended CWC for the fall, winter, and spring quarters in 1938-39, and attended the fall of 1939, winter 1939-40, spring 1940 and fall quarter of 1940....yet he still required two more quarters to graduate when he left CWC at the end of fall 1940.
Jack probably went to work as a ice delivery route driver after leaving Central in the fall of 1940. He then enlisted for the U.S. Army on November 28, 1942 at Tacoma, WA. He noted on his enlistment that he had three years of college and listed his occupation as "semi-skilled routeman" at the time. He was based at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Groundbreaking on construction of Fort Chaffee was started in September 1941 and the Camp was activated on March 27, 1942. His 125th Army Engineer Battalion was attached to the 14th Armored Division that trained there. Later during the War, Jack switched from the U.S. Army Engineers to the U.S. Army Air Corp where and he was based at Walla Walla, Washington. The reason for this change is not entirely clear but I was told it had something to do with his mother's situation.
While stationed at Fort Chaffee, not all aspects of military life were confined to military drill and discipline for Jack Stoddard. He also found time to engage in the sport he loved: basketball. In the summer of 1943, Sgt. Jack, Stoddard, along with another fellow Army engineer from Hoquiam, Sgt. Thor Peterson, formed a basketball team that won the Camp Chaffee basketball championship by winning 17 consecutive games. In the final game (against a field artillery hoop team) the officers and men in his outfit bet $6,000 on their team. The entire battalion, headed by the colonel, marched to the gymnasium to witness the game. Approximately 3,000 servicemen attended the championship tilt won by the engineers 37 to 30. A team photo of the soldier-ball players is uploaded to this memorial.
Jack may have received a furlough to return home to Hoquiam at some point while he was stationed at Fort Chaffee, because at some time, either before his enlistment in the Army in the fall of 1942 or while he was on furlough from the Army in 1943, Jack attended a party at the home of Charles "Chuck" Isaacson in Aberdeen where he met a beautiful young woman a few years younger than himself by the name of Barbara Bailey. The attraction was apparently mutual. Jack and Barbara married in Aberdeen on July 4, 1943. Jack was stationed at Biloxi, MS in late 1943 or early 1944. Barbara (now Barbara Stoddard) travelled there in 1944 to see him. He was later assigned to the U.S. Army Air Corp and based in Walla Walla, WA in 1945 until the end of the War.
Jack and Barbara were married in a civil ceremony at the home of the Catholic priest next to the Catholic Church in Aberdeen. Jack's mother, Gertrude Eleanor Stoddard, and brother, William R. Stoddard, stood as witnesses. The reason they were not married in the Church was because Barbara was not Catholic (her parents were Episcopalian)and apparently she had no interest in becoming a Catholic. Jack's mother came to the wedding....but she was late. The wedding party stood outside the priest's house waiting for Gertrude...and finally they could see her walking slowly up G Street towards the priest's house. Gertrude's tardiness and deliberate slow walking pace (knowing full well she was late and that the ceremony was being delayed because of her) greatly irritated Barbara. Albert on the other hand did not attend the wedding. There was never any explanation given for this...but then I'm not sure anyone actually inquired about the reason for it. The true feelings and relationship between father and son was never discussed or mentioned and is uncertain.
After the War, Jack and Barbara settled-in with Barbara's mother, Margaret Bailey, and her grandmother, Jessie Ann Fraser, all living together at 624 Essex Avenue in Aberdeen. My mother told me that over the decade they all lived together, never was a cross word ever spoken between Jack and her mother or grandmother.
As Jack had previously worked as an "ice man," or ice delivery man, he returned to his ice delivery route for a couple years after the War. This was back in the day when most people had ice boxes in their kitchens for refrigeration (electric refrigerators being rare at that time) and an ice delivery man had to come deliver you a heavy block of ice every few days to keep your ice box cold.
Jack returned to Central Washington College at Ellensburg the spring and summer quarters of 1948 and received his BA in Education and his elementary teaching certificate from CWC on August 15, 1948. He spent at least one year, 1948-49, teaching at Montesano Jr. Sr. High School - although no record of him on the faculty has been found there. It is possible he was either doing student teaching there or working as a substitute teacher for part of the school year and was not a member of the regular faculty staff.
Jack also continued to play basketball after the War. He played in the Grays Harbor industrial league with a team sponsored by the local business, "Speedy Fuel." They won the league championship in 1949.
He next taught social studies at Miller Jr. High school in Aberdeen for two years, 1949-51. He also coached the boys' basketball squad that succeeded in winning the league championship. The Aberdeen School District record shows that Jack was employed at Miller Junior High from September 1949 until August 1953 and he had a coaching contract each year there. This causes a little overlap with his next teaching and coaching position at Grays Harbor College...but in those days GHC was a part of the Aberdeen School District anyway so maybe the record just reflects an administrative error.
Jack first appears on the Grays Harbor College (GHC) faculty in the 1952-53 school yearbook, "Nautilus." This opportunity came as a result of his close friend, George Palo, who left the GHC faculty at the end of the 1951-52 school year to join the staff at Weatherwax High School (Aberdeen High School) and to take over the reins of the Aberdeen Bobcat basketball program. Jack also took over the GHC men's basketball program in 1952-53 when Dan Melinkovich surrendered his coaching responsibilities and focused solely on his athletic director duties for the Aberdeen School District. Jack also coached the track team his first few years at GHC.
Jack was enrolled at Seattle University from 1951 until 1960. He must have taken classes on a part-time or correspondence basis but attended classes on a full-time for at least one full summer circa 1960. He received his general teaching certificate from Seattle University in 1955 and received his master of education degree on June 8, 1962.
In 1955-56, Jack's men's basketball team won the state junior college basketball championship. On the way to winning that 1956 championship title, his wife Barbara gave birth to a set of twins on the same day (February 7, 1956) his basketball team defeated Columbia Basin Junior College in Pasco, Washington. Jack and Barbara's family had now swelled to eight! It was now getting awfully crowded at his mother-in-law's small house on Essex Avenue!
Jack and Barbara saved enough money to buy a house at 502 Burleigh Avenue in Aberdeen, WA circa 1956 (around the time the twins were born). The existing house was too small for a family of 8 children, so Jack proceeded with plans for an addition to the house. Whether Jack utilized an architect and acquired a building permit is debatable. Aberdeen High School Coach George Palo (among others) helped Jack build the addition to this house. The Stoddard family then moved-in to the new home circa 1957. George Palo ("Don't call me Coach...call me George!") tragically died in an automobile accident on September 17, 1961. See memorial #140005494.
Side note: The writer of this biography had a chance run-in with NFL Hall of Fame Coach John Madden while working at the Hyatt on Union Square in San Francisco, CA in 1980. Coach Madden had recently retired from coaching the Oakland Raiders at the end of the 1978 season. John Madden briefly attended Grays Harbor College during the 1956-57 school year and played on the GHC football team in the fall of 1956. After politely interrupting his conversation and introducing myself, I asked Coach Madden if he remembered Grays Harbor College, and specifically, if he recalled my father, basketball coach and instructor Jack Stoddard. Coach Madden shook my hand (with his huge hand and Super Bowl ring nearly crushing my fingers) and he gleefully reflected his early football playing days in Aberdeen...and said he remembered taking a class from Jack Stoddard. My Dad got a kick out of hearing the story of Madden's recollection of being in his class. John Madden was the most well-known professional football coach of his day and the most well-liked and entertaining sports personality of all-time.
Jack always kept busy and found ways to make extra money to support his growing family. As a teacher, he enjoyed summers off — but he always worked. He drove a beer delivery truck for Independent Bottling in Aberdeen as a relief driver for many of those summers. He was also a member of the Grays Harbor Officials Association and served as president of the association, coordinating the recruitment, certification and scheduling of Grays Harbor referees for many years. He refereed a wide range of football and basketball games throughout Grays Harbor County. Jack would drive to South Bend, WA on a Friday night to officiate a high school football game just to be able to bring $5 home to his wife Barbara to help with expenses. Jack also coached the men's track and tennis squads for several years to make a few extra dollars as well.
Jack was always the first to show up at Stewart's Field in Aberdeen before the GHC home football games on Saturday nights in the fall to set-up the concessions. His twin boys sold game programs before the game and then trounced up and down the wet, soggy, muddy field as ball boys, wiping the football used in the game clean with a towel between each play. The GHC coaches and their wives, along with college president Ed Smith and his wife Barbara, would then all gather, usually at the Stoddard home, and drink and smoke and socialize until the wee hour.
Jack went on to coach men's basketball at GHC for 16 years before stepping-down from coaching the men's team and stepping-up to the Athletic Director position at GHC at the end of the 1968-69 school year until 1972.
Jack is also the only person to coach both men's and women's basketball at GHC. After stepping-down as Athletic Director in 1972, he became the women's basketball coach at GHC until 1978. He quit coaching the women's program in 1978 but was compelled to came back to coach the women again for one more season in 1983. When he didn't coach women's basketball at GHC between 1978 and 1983, he assisted the head coach of the Aberdeen High School (AHS) girl's basketball team. He returned to assisting Coach Ackerman with the girls' basketball team at AHS during the 1984-85 season — literally coaching up until the day he died.
To summarize Jack's coaching career and his contribution to athletics in Grays Harbor County in a paragraph is impossible. So it should be excusable to only mention that his men's teams at GHC won the state junior college championship in 1955-56 and won four consecutive junior college conference tiles between 1962 and 1966. His men's teams were always highly-competitive and consistently finished in the top three spots of their conference nearly every year. Several of his players went on to achieve notoriety playing at four year schools.
Jack was not a disciplinary-type coach nor did he stress a physical-fitness regimen in his basketball program. He loved his players, men and woman, and attempted to extract the maximum of their individual potential by emphasizing fundamental basketball skills and techniques. He wasn't overly strategic or tactical but his teams always set-up and executed their team offense with good discipline. While his overall won-loss record has not been officially calculated, he won far more than he lost, and it would be safe to say he had a 60% or better winning percentage in men's basketball.
Jack was humble, sincere and genuine. He was unpretentious and comfortable with himself. He was an extremely likeable guy. You would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't like him. It seemed he knew just about everyone in town and he always had a smile and a friendly greeting (or a dumb joke) to offer when encountering them. While Jack's children hardly speak to each other these days, and they seem to hardly have anything in common or share the same opinion on matters, the one thing they would absolutely agree upon is that Jack Stoddard was a great father. This was a product of the shear magnetism of his personality: he had no parental role model in his life growing up. He had his shortcomings too. He was frugal to a fault at times. This was a symptom of growing-up with very little during the Great Depression years. It would sometimes drive his wife Barbara crazy.
By the late 1970s, Jack was starting to experience a decline in his health. His energy and vitality started to diminish. Ultimately, the doctors discovered a pituitary gland tumor. He had a major surgery to remove the tumor in 1980. Surgery in those days required the skull to be cut completely around the head and the brain lifted to allow removal of the tumor. Jack was really never quite the same again after this ordeal. He lost his sense of smell and taste. In a letter to his wife Barbara, placed in his sock drawer, in which he made his final requests, he asked that "no flowers" be present at his memorial. This was a request based primarily on his life-long frugality. But instead he explained his request by adding, "you know I lost my sense of smell anyway." Even while facing a great threat to his mortality, Jack never lost his sense of humor.
Another of Jack's great attributes was that throughout his life he maintained close personal friendships with his childhood buddies, Ed Smith, Johnny Frodel, and Chet Bergeron, and he added a few more new ones along his way with Dan Melinkovich, Jack Elway, and Vince Aleksey to name just a few. Jack and Barbara were blessed with good friends —those that have been mentioned and their spouses —and neighbors such as Earl and Betty Miller. Barbara once told me the period of the 1960s and their social associations with these friends and coaches were, "the best years of our life."
Jack and Jan Elway (Jan was the daughter of Harry and Marie Jordan of Hoquiam, WA) were close friends with Jack and Barbara Stoddard during the 1960s. No biography of Jack Stoddard would be complete without mentioning the two Jacks' close friendship during the years they both coached at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, Washington. Jack Elway is the father of NFL Hall of Fame QB John Elway. Jack was assistant football coach and track coach at GHC from 1962 until 1964 — becoming head football coach in 1965 until 1968. Jack Elway served as Jack Stoddard's assistant basketball coach at Grays Harbor College in 1963-64. Jack Elway left GHC in 1968 to become an assistant football coach at Montana State University. Jack went on to become an assistant coach at Washington State University and head football coach at Cal State Northridge, San Jose State and Stanford Universities. He later served as director of pro scouting for the Denver Broncos until 1999. Jack Elway passed at age 69 in April 2001.
Jack and Barbara Stoddard were also close friends with Jan Elway's parents, Harry and Marie Jordan of Hoquiam. In 1984, in John Elway's second season with the Denver Broncos, the Jordan's invited Jack and Barbara to go see their grandson John play in Seattle in a game against the Seahawks at the Kingdom on December 15, 1984. Around Christmas 1984, the writer of this biography called his parents and spoke to his Dad. Jack reminisced about his experience at the game and seeing John Elway play. As it turned out, it was the last conversation that father and son ever enjoyed. Jack Stoddard passed a few weeks later on January 4, 1985.
Jack Stoddard passed away after a short illness. His death was sudden and unexpected. His funeral service was held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aberdeen. Church was nearly filled to capacity. The tremendous turnout was a befitting tribute to his memory and legacy.
Dad, this memorial is created so your achievements and memory, and a few relevant stories, can and will endure the passage of time...and so the love felt for you so profoundly by your son could be expressed in some small measure. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you, and my love for you has not diminished — even in the absence of your presence.