Tom Slick
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Template:Use mdy dates
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
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Coleman continued his study of Slick in 2002 with Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". That book mentions many of Slick's adventures, in politics, art, science, and cryptozoology, including his involvement with the CIA and Howard Hughes.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Death
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
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>Template:Citation/make link, "Apparatus for erecting a building", published Script error: No such module "auto date formatter".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ 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
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Sources
Biographies
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". (author is Slick's niece and former director of the Mind Science Foundation)
External links
- 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
- U.S. patent 2471356, Mill for Cutting Feathers, filed May 1945, issued May 1949
- U.S. patent 2535099, Brush Puller, filed August 1947, issued December 1950
- U.S. patent 2715013, Apparatus for erecting a building, (lift-slab construction), filed July 1948, issued August 1955
- Pages with script errors
- 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