Jack Newton Pocock

1935 - 2014

Jack Newton Pocock
Jack Newton Pocock beloved father and grandfather, died peacefully at home on October 6, 2014. Born on March 30, 1935 in Prairie City, Oregon, to Edith and Jack Pocock, Jack spent his young childhood in Seneca, Oregon where his father was employed. Early in WWII, the family moved to the Arthur Begg Ranch in the John Day Valley, named after Jack's maternal grand- father. There, Jack started at the Beshaw School which was across the road from his home. Because he lived so close, Jack was given the job of chopping wood and starting the fire for the one-room schoolhouse on cold winter days. Because he was big and strong for his age, he was soon put to work on the ranch. He did haying, rode horseback and helped in all areas of ranch life. Jack and his friends did a lot of hunting, not always within the law, but kept the family supplied with venison. He got his first deer when he was 10 years old. Jack's family moved to John Day, Oregon in 1946 when the ranch was sold. There he attended junior high and Grant Union High School where he excelled in sports and participated in other nefarious activities, giving Jack many stories to tell to family and friends.
When Jack's father became seriously ill in 1948, his mother went back to work teaching school. During his fathers extended illness, Jack went to Izee to work for the Joe Officer family, where he was taken in as a family member. His years spent there were the most influential of his life and these relationships, along with those he developed when he worked piling lumber on boxcars as he grew older, were lifelong and some of the most important to him.
Jacks football success enabled him to go to Boise Junior College along with fellow Grant Union High School grad Bill Gardner. The team was very successful and several members of the team, including Jack, transferred to the University of Oregon where he played football his Junior and Senior years before graduating in 1958. He treasured the friendships he made there the rest of his life. Jack always considered himself an Oregon Duck and watched the Ducks play up until his passing.
After graduation from the University of Oregon, Jack moved to San Francisco in 1959 and went to work for the Cummins diesel engine dealership Watson and Meehan. This started his career in the trucking industry and is also where he met his future wife, Judith Conner, who worked there while she was attending college. They married in 1962 and moved to Walnut Creek, CA where they started their family with son Jay born in 1963 followed by daughter Jennifer, born eleven months later in 1964. The family moved to Reno, NV in 1968 where Jack started a new dealership as general manager with Watson and Meehan and where daughter Jill was born in 1968. After a few years 1971, the family moved back to Walnut Creek when he went to work for Reliance Sales co. in San Francisco with Don Ling, who became a business partner and lifelong friend. Wanting to open his own trailer sales company, Jack moved the family to Eugene, Oregon in 1975 where he started Alloy Trailers of Oregon. He sold the company after several years and moved to Claremont in 1979. In Claremont, he started Reliance Trailer Co in Los Angeles (with Don Ling). In 1983, Jack acquired Superior Trailer Works from the founding family and moved it to Fontana, CA where he continued to build the business. His son Jay joined him in operating the business in 1985. Jack was semi-retired in 2005 spending more time traveling, golfing and seeing his long time friends before suffering a stroke in 2007.
Jack is survived by Judi (former wife), his children Jay Pocock (Kimberly) of Claremont,
Jennifer Pocock of Mill Valley and Jill Pocock Betz (Stephen) of Telluride, CO and eight grandchildren; Olivia, Claudia, Christian and Lucas Betz, and Emily, Courtney, Amy and Jerred Pocock and his sister, Mary Mascall MacArthur of Dayville, Oregon.
Oregon memorial will be at 2:30 pm on Saturday, November 29, 2014 at the John Day Golf Club. John Day. Three area motels are: Dreamers Lodge (well recommended) 541-575-9526; Best Western, 541-575-1700; and Sunset Inn, 541-575-1462.
California Memorial will be at 2:00 pm on Friday December 5, 2014 in Claremont at 343 W 12th street, Claremont CA 91711 (local Hotel 2 blocks away. Double Tree by Hilton 555 w foothill blvd. Claremont. 1-866-460-7456 book under Pocock for special room rates Dec 5th, 6th)