The family of Jack Dunn contacted Jackson friends to share the news that Jack died at 2pm on Saturday, August 10, surrounded by family. They gave permission to share this news, and we will pass along updates about services in the Exeter area as they are announced.
Jack was a “giant in our community” as Jackson friends Sam and Betsey Harding described him. Patti and Jack moved from Jackson, NH to RiverWoods in Exeter, where they have enjoyed a vibrant life and Jack served on the community’s Board of Trustees. He was introduced to the RiverWoods community with the following brief biography:
“Patti and Jack Dunn moved to The Ridge at RiverWoods in 2015. They had lived in Jackson, NH for 25 years, during which time Jack was moderator of the Jackson Community Church and chaired the capital campaign committee that added a new parish hall. He served on the board of Fryeburg Academy, ME, and led two strategic planning committees. He and Patti have been board members and Jack was board chair of Mountain Top Music Center. Jack and Patti led a capital campaign that gave the school its first permanent home and a small endowment.
Jack was Executive Director of the Mount Washington Observatory from 1996 to 1998. From 1992 through 1995, he served as President of Dean College, a two-year private institution in Franklin, Massachusetts. In the late 1980s, Jack founded HEDS, a 125-school data-sharing consortium, to assist colleges and universities in planning, assessment, and management. He worked at Tufts University from 1969 through 1989 in various capacities. As Vice-President for Planning, he was involved in campus planning, fund-raising planning, major curriculum overhaul, and long-term strategic planning; he also staffed a number of key personnel searches.
After
college, Jack spent two years in the U.S. Army and then went to work
for the Budd Company in Philadelphia, Detroit, Gary, and Buenos Aires,
the last as Vice-President and General Manager of Armetal, S.A.C.I.,
Budd’s manufacturing operation in Argentina. Mr. Dunn is a Phi Beta
Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University (BA, 1956) and of Harvard (EdM,
1970). He has written and lectured on higher education topics and
consulted with several colleges as well as serving on the boards of Dean
College, Wesleyan University, the Association for Institutional
Research, EDUCOM, and the Society for College and University Planning.”
Jack and Patti are both beloved figures in Jackson, NH and remain an
integral part of the story of Jackson’s faith community, as well as the
whole village and the wider valley. Jack will be deeply missed.