JOHN WARD

I wanted to add one more thing about Jack and the impact he had on publishing. Oftentimes you hear it said of someone that he or she is “ahead of their times.”  But in the publishing world that only means that you had the misfortune to release something that no one in the market is ready for. Jack’s genius is that he always released new innovations—particularly in technology—at the precise moment the market was ready for them. The biology student CD-ROM that Gary Whalen wrote about is a great example. We had it in our book bags right when the market indicated that most students had access to a computer with a CD-ROM drive and were interested in using that sort of media for tutorial. A year or two later Jack came up with the BioLink instructor’s media presentation tool which, revolutionary though it was, arrived at the very moment that a huge number of instructors were looking to move away from using slide shows and overhead transparencies. Not only does that demonstrate the innate feel that Jack had for market conditions, it is also testament to his hands-on market research and his willingness to get out and talk to biology instructors about what they needed for their course.

Regards,
John