Alan was born in the Midlands, and lived there with his parents and two younger brothers, Andrew and Stuart, until his teens. He would share stories of his childhood where he would scan the rubbish dumps for useful bits and pieces to recycle into working items. If he needed a bicycle then he would make one. He was fascinated with the mechanics of machinery, his mind forever enquiring into how things were assembled and how they worked. He later turned these attributes into his employment where he developed his metal handling skills through a tool-making apprenticeship followed by service as an airframe fitter in the Royal Air Force from the late 50s until late 60s.
Alan reached his silver awards in ballroom dancing and it was at a dance in Malvern where he met and fell in love with Elizabeth, a trainee scientist whom he married.
In the mid 60s Alan was posted to Cyprus, with his family which by then included two young children. He loved the opportunity he was being given to travel, and, Alan style, he explored every nook and cranny of the island. On his motor bike, four up, with his 4 year old daughter on the tank, Alan at the wheel and baby Adam on Elizabeth’s lap they would all nip to the beach whilst the Greeks were having their siesta.
Alan made everything! In his early married life, he fitted windows, kitchens, rebuilt garages, re-roofed, re-pointed, rewired and plumbed in the many family homes that he shared with his wife Elizabeth and two children. He built furniture, he made wooden toys, garages or doll’s cots for his children's birthdays; he even made a canoe and also constructed an underwater camera out of perspex and rubber gloves that worked!
In the 70s, back in England, he took his children out for hundreds of countryside adventures. Not only his kids; he would fill up the car with all the kids from the street and in the old Ford Cortina drive off down the Forest of Dean to climb on fallen down trees or run around the lakes. And then at the end of their play, it was time to drag great logs across fields; never allowing anything to go to waste, drift wood and old trees would fill up the car to become firewood back home.
He loved the countryside, birds, insects, animals and old fallen down cottages. Anything of nature, anything old, anything interesting. A great old yew tree would bring him so much pleasure as he tried to conceive of the length of time it had been standing there. He would say "Just think of the stories it could tell" An old house, not much more than a pile of rubble would excite the romantic in Alan as he imagined what had taken place, who had lived there and why it was derelict.
In the garden he could always be heard whistling a cheery tune, singing "For you are Beautiful" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" were a couple of his favourites. And if Alan wasn't to be found tending to the garden, watering the plants, planting creepers, growing trees or sweeping up outside the front of the house, he'd be found in his garage. More than a garage. A work of art in itself, full of objects that fascinated Alan, fuel for his imagination and objects ready in waiting for a new life recycled into something else. He'd often say "I could use that, that'll come in handy."
Now over the years many hobbies took place in his garage. Apart from fixing his own car engines, one of his first projects was to polish up little stones and turn them into jewellery. Elizabeth, by then a maths teacher, used to take pretty necklaces and rings into work for sale amongst the teachers. Next he turned himself to wood carving and wooden fishes and letter openers became objects around the home. This was followed by Alan producing some fabulous oil paintings of the sea with the sun reflecting over the water. Then he discovered making sculptures out of scrap metal!
Alan had a profound admiration for the craftsmanship of the early blacksmiths. He loved to collect old tools; metal devices, farm machinery, car and motorcycle parts and even household utensils all made their way into Alan's sculptures. He thrived on being able to save a beautiful and even not so beautiful piece of scrap metal and turn it into art. He loved recycling and found waste unbearable. Each sculpture would have a story to tell, be it "This came off my old mum's washing machine" "This was found near the grave of my favourite diarist, Francis Kilvert" "This came off my daughter's motor bike" "This bit was found near one of my favourite spots, the Baptist Chapel in Tewkesbury".
In the 80s he started to create bird after bird, and insect after insect with bits of metal. His birds and insects would be full of character, ears peeled to listen, feet raised in movement, heads forward in action. And with a sense of humour that was with him until the end, Alan would twist their heads around, making a metal bird appear to be alive and change character with a new position.
In the 90s he was into the flow of a great number of exhibitions and sales of many of his works. Whilst exhibitions were more than 30, with wonderful names like "Any Old Iron" and "Metal Magic", of late the majority of his work has been exhibited at Nature in Art, at Wallsworth Hall in Gloucester, Birdland Park, Bourton on the Water and John Moore Countryside Museum, Tewkesbury. Others have flown to distant parts, to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Newnham Paddox in Leicestershire and International Art Parks in Guernsey.
Altogether he produced more than 200 works of art. He experienced great pleasure sitting in his living room and watching the pedestrians going past his house, stopping to look at his sculptures. Seeing his work constantly engaging people meant a lot to him. He didn't mind if his work wasn't of interest to people, but he did like it when his work could be appreciated for the skill that went into it and the meaning behind each individual work of art.
Often, rather than sell a piece he would give it away or loan it instead.
Alan Jack was full of enthusiasm for life, eager to learn and grow and able to breathe excitement and energy into all around him. He loved to encourage people to get the best out of life, always believing that everyone had potential for great satisfaction in life and always wanting everyone to reach it. I wonder how many people have heard Alan say "You can do it" as he endeavoured to have everyone believe in themselves.
Alan was a sensitive man full of compassion and moved to tears by the profound and the emotional. It wasn't always easy for him to bear great world tragedies, waste, devastation or loss. He would feel too deeply hurt by life. It was much easier for him if he could make a difference and so he did. He has helped and encouraged so many people and animals. If it wasn't someone who was hitchhiking in the forest with no money, or fallen off their bike, or crashed their car, or walking home barefoot it would be a crow fallen out of a tree, a seagull that had been caught on a fence or a sparrow wounded from being chased by a cat. A crow could be recovering in Alan's shed, whilst a baby rabbit would be running around the living room half tamed after recovering from a recent ordeal.
At 66 he was still full of ideas and quests for his future. He didn't have much preparation for the fact that his life was going to be cut short and all the things he still planned to do and see would be unfulfilled dreams. But he handled his approaching death with such bravery and humour. He made it possible to talk about death and gave us all the opportunity to say heartfelt things to him. It was quite something to see that he even managed to sustain his fascination around his failing health. He could even find it of interest that he was losing the ability to speak. And to be able to turn an inquiring mind to disability and eventual death was quite remarkable. He kept his sense of humour, would laugh when he struggled to find his words, and before he lost the ability to speak he would joke "I've still got so many ideas, I think that's what must have blown my brains out".
Alan knew Gloucestershire and the surrounding countryside better than any tour leader and spent his last months returning to his favourite places, sorting out his affairs and helping pave the way for Elizabeth to live without him, moving his sculptures onto permanent exhibitions, seeing his favourite people and saying goodbyes to those who loved him, and generally making peace with what was happening to him.
Whilst we would all prefer Alan to be alive we can only now turn to the memories inside us, of a great man. An honest, enthusiastic, reliable, creative, exciting, interested and interesting, encouraging, romantic, passionate, sensitive and emotional man.
Alan was, and in our hearts always will be, a real character who will be greatly missed. He was unique.