Jack Paquette

Jack K. Paquette, (89), historian, author and retired corporate vice president of Owens-Illinois, Inc., died December 5th. Born on Utah Street in East Toledo on August 14, 1925, he was the youngest of the seven children of Hector and Nellie (McCormick) Paquette. In 1933, six years after the death of his mother, Jack and two of his brothers, George and Leo, were placed in the Lucas County Children’s Home in Maumee. He was adopted from there in 1939 by G. Edward and Louise Lemon of Fremont. Jack enlisted in the U. S. Navy at age 17 while still attending Fremont Ross High School during World War II. He was called to active duty in 1943, immediately following graduation, and served the next three years in the Navy, including duty aboard ship in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Following the war, he attended The Ohio State University under the GI Bill, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in journalism in 1949, and a master of arts degree in political science in 1951. While a student at OSU, he worked as editor of a monthly newsletter published by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles; as news editor of the Ohio State Lantern, the campus daily, and as copy editor and assistant city editor of the Ohio State Journal, the Columbus morning newspaper. He embarked on a 33-year career with Owens-Illinois in 1951, after completing his studies at OSU. Beginning as a creative writing specialist, he held several executive positions in the companys Glass Container Division and Corporate Marketing Department before becoming advertising and sales promotion manager of the Libbey Glass Division in 1961. For a time while serving with the Libbey group, he was assigned to that divisions Ash Street factory as a department head in glass production operations. In 1964, he was promoted to manager of the Customer Marketing Services Department for the Glass Container Division, O-I’s largest operating unit.  Three years later, he was named O-Is director of Corporate Organizational Planning and assigned to assist Raymon H. Mulford, the companys president and chief executive officer. In 1969, Jack was appointed a vice president of the Administrative Division in charge of a newly organized Corporate Relations Department, with responsibility for advertising and sales promotion, public relations, public affairs, charitable contributions and the companys office in Washington, D. C.. Elected a vice president of the overall company in 1970, he continued as director of Corporate Relations until 1981, when he was promoted to assistant to Edwin D. Dodd, then O-I’s chairman and chief executive officer. Following retirement from O-I in 1984, he established Paquette Enterprises, a management consulting, retailing and publishing firm, which he served as president. One of the activities of the firm was an upscale antiques store and restoration center on West Bancroft Street called The Trumpeting Angel, managed by his son, John. A history buff and an avid collector of miniature figures and maritime artifacts, Jack had an army of toy soldiers numbering in the thousands which he displayed in his Sylvania Township home and an armada of ship models he kept in a vacation residence, aptly-located on Schooner Ridge Road in Bath, Maine. Typical of his generation, he was extremely patriotic and often commented that he felt privileged to serve his country in wartime. For this reason, he was deeply moved when he was given the opportunity in June 2010 to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D. C. as a participant in a trip sponsored by Honor Flight of Northwest Ohio. A life long professional writer, he was the author of numerous articles and six books on the history of northwest Ohio. These included a highly-acclaimed memoir titled, A Boy’s Journey through the Great Depression, which was published in 2005, shortly after his 80th birthday, and Small Town Girl, a book about ordinary people who led extraordinary lives, which appeared in 2013, soon after he celebrated his 88th. He was working on a sequel to Small Town Girl, when he died. The concluding words of the memoir, which describes his experiences living in the Lucas County Children’s Home in the 1930s, were used as the text on the Ohio Historical Marker Jack helped commission to honor the thousands of youngsters who also lived at the orphanage during its 100-year existence. The marker was erected in 2008 on the grounds of Maumee’s Fort Miami Elementary School, once the site of the Home’s playground. The photographs, documents and other historical data he accumulated while working at O-I and later researching and writing about the glass industry became the basis for The Jack K. Paquette Collection of Historical Documents on the Northwest Ohio Glass Industry, located in the Canaday Center of the University of Toledos Carlson Library. Because this collection is a major supplement to the Center’s extensive archival materials about Toledo’s glass companies, it has become a significant resource to scholars across the country. Profiled since 1970 in Whos Who in America, Jack had been active for many years in a large number of local, state and national civic and philanthropic organizations, due, in part, to his responsibilities at Owens-Illinois: He was emeritus chairman of Keep America Beautiful, Inc., a non-profit public service organization headquartered in New York, which he had served as national chairman and a longtime trustee. He was a member of the National Commission on a Free and Responsible Press, Washington, D.C., which conducted an extensive analysis of the American media’s relationship with the public and private sectors. He was corporate liaison for the Business Committee for the Arts, and accepted a national award for this effort. He was honored by Public Relations News, of New York, with that national publication’s “Gold Key for Excellence in Public Relations Management”, and twice accepted the Silver Anvil Award of the Public Relations Society of America for his O-I department’s work in corporate public affairs. For his extensive effort to improve the environment, he was inducted into the “Toledo Clean” Hall of Fame, sponsored by the city’s major neighborhood home improvement agency. Although he was not an alumnus of Bowling Green State University, he was asked by Hollis Moore, its president, to serve as chairman of the University’s Foundation and president of the BGSU Development Fund. In appreciation for this work, he was named a member of the BGSU President’s Club, which recognizes those who have made a major contribution to the universitys teaching, research, and service objectives. Jack was O-I’s corporate liaison officer for the Urban Land Institute Study, the Greater Toledo Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. He was a member of the Toledo Area Chamber’s contributions committee and served as an officer and trustee of the Ohio Manufacturers Association for more than 15 years. He was a director and an honorary director of the Greater Toledo Chapter of the American Red Cross and held a number of volunteer offices with the United Way of Northwestern Ohio. He was an officer and trustee of the Toledo Repertoire Theater, chairman of the board of Crosby Gardens, and chairman emeritus of the Toledo Botanical Garden. Active in the Boy Scouts of America beginning in childhood, Jack was an Eagle Scout, a former troop leader and an officer and member of the Toledo Area BSA Council’s board of governors. He was a trustee of the Lucas County Children’s Services Board, the Western Lake Erie Historical Society, the Visiting Nurses, the Greater Toledo YMCA and the Torch Club of Toledo, which he also served as president. President of the Ohio State chapter of Sigma Delta Chi while a graduate student at the university, he was a co-founder of both the Columbus and Northwestern Ohio chapters of that national society of professional journalists. He was a founding director of the Toledo Press Club and a member of the board of governors of the Advertising Club of Toledo. He was a two-term chairman of the U.S. Savings Bond Campaign in Lucas County. He served several terms as chairman of the advertising committee of the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute in New York and as chairman of the public affairs committee of the Glass Packaging Institute in Washington, D.C. He had been a member of the advisory board of Toledos Mercy Hospital and Mid-Coast Health Services of Brunswick, Maine, and served as chairman of the board of Toledo’s Riverside Hospital Foundation. He also served on the advisory boards of the Cresset Chemical Company and the Northside Corporation. Formerly on the Presidents Councils of the Toledo Museum of Art and the University of Toledo, he was the historian of Toledo Post #335 of the American Legion and a life member of The Ohio State University Alumni Association. Over the years, he also had been a member of the Toledo Club; the Sylvania Country Club; the Toledo Country Club; the Wellington Club of London, England; the Rotary Club of Toledo, and Rotary International, which named him a Paul Harris Fellow. Jack was married for 67 years to his high school sweetheart and best friend, the former Jane Russell, of Fremont. They had begun dating in the autumn of 1942, when Jane was a junior at Ross High and Jack was a senior. They continued their courtship, mostly by V-mail, during Jack’s years in the Navy and married in 1947 while both were students at OSU. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jane; his parents and adoptive parents; his brothers Howard, Leo and George Paquette, and his sisters June Paquette, Virginia Paquette Norton and Henrietta Paquette Wadsworth. He is survived by his four children – Dr. Jan Eriksen (Mark), of LaCrosse, WI; Mark Paquette (Cynthia), of Kennebunkport, ME; Mary Beth Paquette (Charles Cohen), of Monmouth, ME, and John Paquette (Eileen), of Covington, KY and three granddaughters: Sage and Hope Paquette-Cohen and Emma Paquette. A Celebration of Life will be held at ­­Highland Meadows Golf Club, 7455 Erie Street, Sylvania, OHon Monday, December 22 at 2 p.m.  Internment ceremonies at Resurrection Cemetery will be private.  Arrangements by Walker Funeral Home (419)-841-2422.  Condolences may be shared at walkerfuneralhomes.com. If desired, contributions can be made to Hospice of Northwest Ohio 30000 River Rd Perrysburg, OH 43551; the University of Toledo’s Canaday Center, in support of the Paquette Collection; the Maumee Valley Historical Society 1032 River Rd Maumee, OH 43537; the Toledo Botanical Garden 5403 Elmer Dr. Toledo, OH 43615, Little Flower Church 5522 Dorr St. Toledo, OH 43615, or a charity of the donors choice.