Tom Slick
Thomas Baker Slick Jr. (May 6, 1916 – October 6, 1962) was a San Antonio, Texas-based inventor, businessman, adventurer, and heir to an oil business. Slick's father, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., a.k.a. "The King of the Wildcatters", had made a fortune during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1910s.[1][2] He was notable for discovering Oklahoma's then-largest oil field, the Cushing Oil Field.[1]
Career
[edit | edit source]During the 1950s, Slick was an adventurer. He turned his attention to expeditions to investigate the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti,[3] Bigfoot[2] and the Trinity Alps giant salamander.[citation needed] Slick's interest in cryptozoology was little known until the 1989 publication of the biography Tom Slick and the Search for Yeti, by Loren Coleman.[citation needed] Coleman continued his study of Slick in 2002 with Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.[citation needed] That book mentions many of Slick's adventures, in politics, art, science, and cryptozoology, including his involvement with the CIA and Howard Hughes.[citation needed] Slick financed Peter Byrne's pursuits of yeti and bigfoot.[4]
Slick was a friend of many celebrities, including Hughes and fellow flier Jimmy Stewart.[citation needed] Stewart, for example, assisted a Slick-backed expedition in smuggling a piece of the Pangboche Yeti hand back to England for scientific analysis, Loren Coleman was to discover from Slick's files and confirmation from Stewart before his death.[citation needed]
Slick founded several research organizations, beginning with the forerunner of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in 1941.[2] His most well-known legacy is the non-profit Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which he founded in 1947 to seek revolutionary advancements in technology.[2][5] SwRI continues to advance pure and applied science in a variety of fields from lubricant and motor fuel formulation to solar physics and planetary science.[citation needed] He also founded the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio in 1958 to do consciousness research.[2]
Tom assisted his brother, Earl F. Slick, in founding Slick Airways, one of the first US scheduled freight airlines.[2][6][7]
In 1953 Trinity University awarded him an honorary doctor of science.[2]
In 1955 he was awarded a patent for the lift slab method of constructing concrete buildings.[2][8]
He was an advocate of world peace.[2] In 1958 he published the book, Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan.[2] He funded the Tom Slick World Peace lectures at the LBJ Library, and the Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace at the University of Texas.[9]
Nicolas Cage was to have portrayed Slick in a movie, Tom Slick: Monster Hunter, but the project stalled.[10]
Art collection
[edit | edit source]Slick was an avid collector of modern art. His collection was surveyed by the McNay Art Museum with an exhibition and catalogue titled Tom Slick: International Art Collector.[citation needed]
Death
[edit | edit source]On October 6, 1962, Slick was returning from a Canadian hunting trip when his airplane crashed in Montana.[2][11] Reportedly, the aircraft disintegrated in flight.[11] A wing broke off in violent wind shear over the mountains.[11] He was buried in Mission Burial Park, San Antonio.[2]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
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- ^ Tom Slick: Monster Hunter movie trailer review pics pictures poster news DVD at The Z Review
- ^ a b c "Texas Oil Magnate Dies In Air Crash", Miami News, October 5, 1962, p1
Sources
[edit | edit source]Biographies
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Mind Science Foundation biography
- Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace at the University of Texas
- Tom Slick and peace
- Tom Slick and the Dalai Lama
Patents
[edit | edit source]- U.S. patent 2,471,356, Mill for Cutting Feathers, filed May 1945, issued May 1949
- U.S. patent 2,535,099, Brush Puller, filed August 1947, issued December 1950
- U.S. patent 2,715,013, Apparatus for erecting a building, (lift-slab construction), filed July 1948, issued August 1955
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- 1916 births
- 1962 deaths
- Accidental deaths in Montana
- Cryptozoologists
- Businesspeople from San Antonio
- Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
- Yale University alumni
- Harvard University alumni
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1962
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
- 20th-century American people