JAMES MCDANIEL

A few notes on remembering Jack…

The two times I visited with Cecie and Jack over the past two years I was taken by how rapidly he was deteriorating. And he knew it as well . . .

 Going back to our Wadsworth years, I would say fifteen of my twenty years were spent with me as Managing Editor and Executive Editor working with Jack and my other editors. And I would estimate that I spent twenty-five percent of my time dealing with him and his problems. Did I enjoy him . . . yes I did . . . and did I find him a pain in the ass . . . yes I did. I was constantly putting out fires that Jack started. When he had a project come in-house for production is when it got the roughest. He would try and get it moved to the front of the line . . . he would work on Bill Ralph to see if he could get it moved ahead in the printing process . . . he’d try and get the artist he wanted to place his project ahead of wherever it fell . . . and, like most field editors, he’d mainly side with his authors when problems occurred during the editing and page layout process. And it would go on through the advertising and promotion process and Jack’s presentation to the sales staff of the published book. Jack spent a major amount of his time (especially January through June) in the field after the publication of G. Tyler Miller’s Living in the Environment. And on every campus he visited, after first checking with the field rep, he’d check to see if they had a course where the environment would fit. If they didn’t have a course yet, he’d begin in biology, asking questions, starting with the head of the department, regarding which prof was most inclined to want to teach such a course. And if no one prof stood out, he ask if there were any profs from other departments that would be interested. One way or another he was able to locate the right person . . . then pitching them Miller’s book was a shoe-in. 

 Then came Cecie Starr. I can’t remember when, or from who, I first heard of her but her writing ability came shining through from the stuff she’d written with Psychology Today. And I encouraged Jack to go sign her up for any and everything. He ended up bringing her up to the office and I was involved in her signing. But Jack pretty well had her softened and ready to sign. And then, he had the good fortune of marrying her . . . 

 We spent a lot of hours chatting . . . both during normal business hours and after them. And most of it was about publishing. Fortunately, I enjoyed it almost as much as Jack. I must say, I miss those conversations, even today. You are missed Jackson . . .