Jack donated his body to scientific research and education through the Science Care organization (www.sciencecare.com). They in turn planted a tree in his memory in the San Juan forest in southwestern Colorado, which is where he and his family created many fond memories of camping, hiking, fishing and of the cabin he and Carole owned for many years.
Jack B. Molden – My biography
This is for my children and grandchildren.
I was born at 3:00am, December 9, 1929 inSioux City,Iowa. I was over nine pounds and - to add pain to inconvenience - I was a breach birth. My father was Peter Bryan Molden (Bryan, or BP), my mother was Florence Anderson Molden. My older sister was Beverly Joyce Molden, who was two years older. And my brother, Don Anderson Molden, was born four years later.
We lived on John Street and moved around some in Sioux City, at one time living on a small farm the folks called “the acreage”. We bathed in a washtub in the kitchen every Saturday night.
We moved to Wichita, Kansas, when I was 6 or 7, so I don’t have many memories of Sioux City except that we went back to visit frequently. My paternal Grandparents were Matthew and Anna and were immigrants fromNorway. Matthew was a cabinetmaker. My maternal grandparents, John and Gertrude Anderson, were immigrants from Sweden. John was a laborer. All four of them spoke broken English. My mom and dad met and were married in Sioux City, where all three of us children were born.
My dad was transferred toWichitain about 1936. He was an operating engineer at Cudahy Packing Co. He operated a large refrigeration plant for the company. I think he only graduated from the eighth grade, which was not uncommon in the early Twentieth Century, but he self-educated by taking ICS correspondence courses. Mom graduated from a secretarial course, but - after she was married - was a stay-at-home Mom and only went back to work during the Second World War. She worked at Western Union and later at Montgomery Ward in the credit department.
We lived in three different rental houses inWichitauntil we finally bought a house at 1933Jackson. It was a real fixer-upper and we spent many years thereafter making it livable. It was a one bedroom, one bath, and one story house. Dad enlarged the house by adding two bedrooms in the attic. Later we dug a basement and built a bedroom and shower there. Dad was the classic handy-man. He could fix, or build, anything. In 1950, he added a double garage to the back of the house and later turned it into a bedroom with a half bath and a wood burning fireplace.
The Great Depression struck just before I was born and lasted until the Second World War (December, 1941). Based on today’s standards we were quite poor, but we always had plenty to eat and a home with loving parents. Dad was never out of a job. We had a large “victory garden” in our back yard all during the war. It was my job every spring to dig up the garden using a spading fork. We raised chickens for a time and even had several goats when Dad heard that goat’s milk was health producing. Although he was not healthy, he was a bit of a food faddist. One time he bought a juicer and we all ended up having to drink carrot juice and other foul tasting beverages. These fads never lasted long. Dad was never healthy and died at the age of 60 in 1960, of a coronary.
Everything was rationed during the Second World War: canned food, sugar, gasoline etc. We got three gallons of gasoline a week. We hoarded a large barrel of sugar in the attic and used it all during the war.
I attended grade school atIrving. It was about two miles from home and we always walked, rain or shine. No school buses in those days. It is interesting to note that once a week, all of the students marched two blocks to a local church for religious training; it was part of the curriculum - that is, required (Jews, Muslims, atheists all included).
I was always the biggest boy in my class and, though I was never a very good student, I was often picked for leadership roles because of my size. I was a school crossing guard, promoted to Sergeant, then to Captain. I got busted back down to Sergeant when I got caught throwing snowballs at the girls. This preferential treatment lasted most of my life. I think it was largely a de-motivator.
Because of my size, I didn’t get in many fights. My only adversary was a boy named Billy Ray in the 4th or 5th grade. He kept picking at me until one afternoon after school I bloodied his nose. That was the end of that. Billy Ray didn’t bother me any more and I don’t remember ever getting into another fight. As opposed to common wisdom, I think small men are probably tougher and better fighters than large men because they get more practice fighting.
I attended middle school (intermediate) at Horace Mann through the ninth grade. Once again, I was not a very good student, but I managed to slide by. Again, there were no school buses. We walked or rode a bicycle.
I enjoyed working more than school and almost always had a job from the age of seven. I cut grass and dug dandelions, delivered for a drug store, soda jerked at two different drug stores, was a filling station attendant, sold magazines door to door, delivered paper routes, and was a stock boy. During high school, I worked at Cudahy Packing Co, both in poultry and in the office mailing room. I worked there full time in the summer and during high school went in at 5:00pm to 10:00pm when I took the mail to the post office. I worked for a short time in construction and part of one summer on a farm (whew, really hard work). I also worked the night shift at the Wichita Eagle newspaper in the mailing room seven nights a week, from 8:00pm to 2:00am, while in high school. I did a lot of sleeping in chemistry and physics classes and never really learned much. During one summer, I was a machinist’s helper for Davis-Westholt Airplane Parts Manufacturing Co. Most of the able-bodied men were in the service and it was easy for a teenager to get a grown-up job. I loved it and I liked having the money. I don’t know why my parents allowed it. I also had jobs at a warehouse, a trucking company, and a shoe store as a salesman (that only lasted three or four days - I was never a salesman!).
I got my drivers license when I was 14 and bought my first car at 16, a 1930 Chevy, for which I paid a whole $100. It made it as far as my driveway where it died. It sat in the backyard for a couple of months until my Dad had the junk man come and pick it up. I eventually bought a Cushman motor scooter that got me around very nicely.
My parents did not own a car during the war. Gasoline was rationed and tires were not available. No civilian cars were built during the war as all of the manufacturing effort was going toward making tanks, jeeps, airplanes and ships. Not having access to a car during my high school days was a severe impediment to my social life. I had to depend on finding a buddy who had a car and would double date.
I loved sports: I played football all three years of high school and went out for track. I tried the swim team, but couldn’t stand the hot water and quit. I also tried basketball, but got severe shin splints and had to quit that too. Although I loved sports, I never did excel, though I had the necessary size and weight. I have never been a strong competitor. I just loved to play and did not really care who won. I came to within an inch of lettering in track, but all in all I was a failure as an athlete.
I was a child of the Depression, born right after the stock market crash of 1929. I think living thru the next twelve years of economic depression taught me the value of hard work and money management. Although we never lacked the basics of life, we learned to live without waste or excess. We never went to a restaurant or to an ice cream store until the war ended, when there was more money available. I remember what a treat it was to occasionally get soft ice cream sundaes.
I did love to read and would sometimes read half the night in bed. My favorites were O Henry, Jack London, Commander Elsberg and other adventure writers. I liked adventure, sea tales and deep sea diving. I spent a lot of time in the library. As it turned out, those things continued to interest me as I grew up.
I graduated from North High School in Wichita in 1947, but lacked a couple of credits and had to stay over another semester. During that time, I worked as a tree trimmer for Wooten Tree Service. I graduated with about a C grade average. As it turned out I educated myself pretty well by reading. That reading put me in good stead the rest of my life. I encourage all of you to read.
During the summer of my junior and senior year of high school, I worked with my best friend, George Hall, at Sandy Beach, outside Wichita, as a life guard. Sandy Beach was developed from a sand pit to a really nice lake-like facility with sand beaches, diving boards, swings and a 60 foot diving tower. It was like a small lake. There was a guard tower in the middle where I watched over my flock. I was given room and board and $25.00 a week for about a sixty hour week, but I loved it! I would probably have paid them. I loved to swim and dive, the food was exceptional, and I WAS IN CHARGE. There were about eight teenagers working at Sandy Beach. We were all friends and when it stormed we would go into the ballroom, play the juke box, and dance. It was during this time that I experienced my first love. Her name was Norma Ward. She was 14 going on 25: I was 17, and I fell hard. When the summer ended and I was no longer a life guard, she dumped me. I can still remember the pain. You will go through it – we all do, and it does pass. During that time I had another 1930 Chevrolet which ran well until I went into the Navy and sold it to a friend for $100 – then it died.
I had a real yen to be in the military. During high school I wanted to be sent to a military academy. But, of course, my folks could not afford it. I tried to talk my folks into lying about my age to join the military during the war, but they refused because I hadn’t finished high school.
My favorite Uncle, Ronnie, was a doctor in Denver and I had plans to go to medical school and join him in his practice. So, in the spring of 1948 I enrolled in college at the University of Wichita in a pre-med course. My tuition was $65 a semester. My favorite pastimes were jumping on the trampoline at the gym and participating in ROTC. I was not prepared for the science curriculum and after six weeks I quit and joined the Navy.
I wanted to join the Marine Corps, but when I went to the court house to enlist the Marine recruiter was out. The Navy recruiter, seeing me sitting in the hallway, came out and told me three of my high school buddies were coming down to enlist and we could all go to San Diego to boot camp together. That cinched it; it was the Navy. I went on active duty to the Naval Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, on October 25, 1948. I was paid $75 a month as a Seaman Recruit. I took the train to San Diego and we were all met at the train station by a bus which took us to the Recruit Depot. There were probably a thousand or more sailors being trained at that facility at that time, it being the primary training station for the U.S. Navy.
Our first night, we all slept in a receiving barracks. I remember some homesick sailor crying in the night. The next morning, we were rousted out before daylight and were made to spread out and walk the streets to pick up cigarette butts. But, in the darkness, cigarette butts could not be distinguished from seagull droppings! Our company of 100 men was #502 and we slept in a two story wooden barracks that was always cold at night. Our DI was a Chief Petty Officer – don’t remember his name. The first day he appointed one of our company as a Recruit Chief Petty Officer and another as Assistant Chief. They were to be in charge when our drill instructor was not present. The company was a rowdy bunch and they lost control. The DI, in some disgust, said he was going to replace them with the biggest, meanest men in the company. I was taken aback when he selected me as Recruit Chief. My assistant was a mean looking pug from Chicago and we were nose-to-nose most of the twelve weeks of boot camp. Fortunately we never did have to fight. I had been in ROTC during my short stint at college and had learned some military procedures and manners and fit into the job very easily. Once again, I enjoyed being in charge and having responsibility. I, as the recruit CPO, was the only one to enjoy a locker. Everyone else had to keep all their belongings in a seabag.
My Mother used to send me packages of fudge, but - when I opened it - the guys would crowd around and eat it all up. So, the next package I received I hid in my locker to be eaten in secret. That night, after taps and lights out, I quietly opened my locker, reached in to retrieve some fudge and felt something crawling on my arm. I went into the bathroom to investigate and found my arm covered with ants. I threw the whole package into the garbage can and resolved to be less selfish in the future.
Boot camp was 12 weeks long and for the first two weeks we were not allowed any sweets or to leave the base. Later, we were given one 72-hour pass. I went to Los Angeles with a couple of buddies, did some sightseeing, went to a dime-a-dance studio and slept at the USO. We didn’t have much fun during boot camp, but once in awhile there was a “smoker”, which was a series of boxing matches. Mostly it was work from before sunup until taps at 10:00pm.
I was given leave to go home the Christmas of 1948. Just before going on leave, Bob Hope came to the base and entertained the troops. After graduation, I was assigned to the target repair base on Point Loma, San Diego. I was there for an uneventful year when I applied for deep sea diving school at the Naval Station, San Diego. The work was exciting, but very strenuous and pretty scary sometimes. My first dive after graduation I lost my air supply at 110 feet and thought I was going to die. We were paid hazardous duty pay of $10 a month and $5 for every dive. Not much to risk your life for! But it was a great experience. I lived on base in a barracks with another 100 or so sailors. I had no friends and no transportation and I was lonely. I also did not have much money. I was still making $75 a month and buying a $25 savings bond every month out of that. I spent time at the library and at the base swimming pool. I took a couple of military correspondence courses, but was not very happy or satisfied. When my mother and sister came to San Diego to visit I asked my mother to try to get me out of the Navy by claiming hardship. To her benefit, she refused.
Still looking for something satisfying, I transferred to Underwater Demolition Team One at the amphibious base on Coronado Island across the bay from San Diego in March 1950. The training was difficult, but I loved the routine. The team consisted of seven officers and forty enlisted men and we were titled “reconnaissance and demolition swimmers”. We were trained to swim into a hostile beach - prior to an amphibious landing - survey the beach, then later return and destroy any obstacles to landing craft with TNT and C3 explosives. What we did most of the time under the category of “training” was to do a two mile swim in the morning, play volleyball on the beach until lunch, return to the beach for a two mile run, then spend the rest of the afternoon playing volleyball. There was some training in between, but it was fun and healthy. The team was a close-knit group and I had some very good friends.
I bought an old 1936 Chevrolet just to get around in. We got paid once a month (about $50). I would go to the Navy Exchange, buy cigarettes, shaving supplies, etc., then buy some movie tickets (25 cents), and what was left was for liberty in San Diego. There wasn’t much for a 20 year old to do, so I wandered the streets and sometimes spent the night in an all-night movie theater just to get off the base for awhile.
That didn’t last for long, however. In June, 1950, the North Koreans invaded the South. We began training in earnest and headed out for Korea in a 100 ship convoy. We landed in Pusan, Korea, in August, 1950, when the North Koreans had almost pushed us off the Korean Peninsula. We then headed back to Sasabo, Japan, for further training. We spent 10 months operating in Korea the first time, during which we made three demolition raids inside North Korea, destroying railroad bridges and tunnels. We returned to the States in 1951 for R and R and leave. We returned for an additional seven months in 1951-52. During our 17 months in the Korean theater, we did about 200 combat recons. We were shot at several times, swam in a lot of really cold water (summer and winter), and usually didn’t know where we were or what we were doing. At one time, we were operating in North Korea within 25 miles of the Russian sub base at Vladivostok. We had two men killed and several wounded. One team member developed a “stress related illness” and had to be sent back to the States.
We returned to the States in 1952. I was discharged in June and returned to Wichita. I had bought a really neat, maroon 1948 Pontiac convertible. It was about half a mile long, but very pretty. I worked the rest of that summer as a lifeguard at Sandy Beach and enrolled in school at Wichita State University for the fall of 1952. I was determined to make up for the four years I had lost and joined a local fraternity, Men of Webster. There were no national Greek organizations on the campus at that time. I was having a great time partying, but also taking my studies seriously for a change. During my freshman year, I met Edith Alene Tedlock. She was 19 and a Sophomore. We were pinned and eventually married in August, 1954. We went to Aspen, CO, on our honeymoon.
In May, 1953, I joined the Wichita Police Department as a police patrolman. I worked 48 hours a week and carried a full load of courses at school. I spent a lot of time reading my school books in my police car. I had beats mainly in the north end of Wichita where the crime was highest, but also rode a Harley Davidson traffic motorcycle for about a year until I barely dodged death and went back to patrol. I also worked in the jail, the police desk, and communications.
Edith and I bought a small house at 539 South Pinecrest. Mike was born in December, 1955, the year Edith graduated, and I graduated in 1956 with majors in Political Science and Police Science. About a C average, but I finished.
My starting salary at the PD was about $300 a month and I had to buy my own uniforms. My GI bill paid me $110 a month for going to school. I also got a GI loan to buy my first house. The monthly payment was $72 for a $10,000 two bedroom, one bath house with a one car garage. At that time, I drove a maroon 1950 Chevrolet and Edith had a cream 1950 Plymouth convertible.
After college graduation, I applied for, and received, a direct commission as Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. My first assignment was in a Naval Intelligence unit in Minneapolis, MN. My final duty was of commanding officer of a surface division in Illinois. I continued to serve in the Reserve until age 60, when I retired as a Lieutenant Commander. I was never recalled to active duty, although I wished to be.
In 1957, I took a job as criminal investigator with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit, a branch of the Treasury Dept (later ATF). I went to Minneapolis as a post of duty. I was a GS7, with a salary of $4,525 a year. I spent six weeks in Washington, D.C. in Treasury Enforcement School where I lived in a boarding house. I was able to watch President Eisenhower’s second inaugural parade.
We paid $102 a month for our first one bedroom apartment in St. Paul, MN, which included heating. We later moved to a two bedroom duplex in Bloomington, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis. Later we paid $300 to take over payments on a three bedroom house in Bloomington. I hated the job and couldn’t wait to get back to the police department. It is the only time I ever worked for the federal government and I experienced nothing but waste and inefficiencies. It was horrible, although the benefits were outstanding.
During our first year, I almost froze in the Minnesota winter because I couldn’t afford to buy a warm overcoat and gloves. After a year, I was promoted to GS9 at $6,200 a year. We felt like we were rolling in money. However, during our two and a half years in Minnesota, we hired a babysitter and went out to a movie and dinner a total of one time. Douglas Scott was born in 1959. We lived on South Lyndale Ave. in Bloomington when Doug was born (I forgot the street number – I think about 9500 South Lyndale).
I finally quit in disgust and moved back to Wichita to be back on the police force. Edith was devastated. We bought a two bedroom house at 945 North Battin when we moved back to Wichita in March, 1959, after living in a rented duplex for six months. Again, we paid $10,000 for that house (must have been the going rate in the 50’s). We enjoyed our time back home with two sets of grandparents for the boys.
I fit right back into police work and was eventually promoted to detective in the forensic lab. My dad died in 1960. Our vacations were mostly when I took my two week Navy active duty for training.
In May, 1963, I accepted the position of Chief of Police in Emporia, Kansas. I liked my new job and by and large we were all happy in Emporia. Edith and I finished our Master’s degrees at Emporia State, both in Education. Edith taught in the Phys. Ed deptartment and I attended the FBI National Academy in Washington, D.C. in1968. We lived at 1524 Center Street. Mike and Doug attended the University lab school and were shocked when, later, we moved to Illinois and they started attending public schools.
But, after seven years, I ran out of improvements to be made in the police department, became bored, and took a job as Associate Professor, Police Training Institute University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, in May of 1970. Edith, I and the boys bought a nice house at 1003 Harmon St. in Urbana. In January of 1974, Edith and I divorced and I moved across town to Champaign.
Then, in 1976, I met a wonderful woman named Carole who was also divorced with two children from a previous marriage, Todd & Paige. We were married in May of 1977 and - although neither of us cared much for the Midwest - we remained in Illinois so that I could continue on at the University.
Carole and I invested in a variety of fixer-upper properties in town that were rented mostly to University students. This kept us pretty busy, as I did most of the handyman work and construction and Carole excelled at the interior design and landscaping efforts. We’ve continued to invest in real estate rentals even until the current day.
I retired from the University as Professor Emeritus on December 9, 1989, my 60th birthday. For five years after retiring from PTI, I formed my own training and consulting company, JBM and Associates. I finally burned out and retired for the second time.
We picked up and moved to Ashland, Oregon, where we bought a building lot and rented a house next door. We loved Ashland, but our construction plans weren’t quite working out, so decided to move to Woodland Park, CO, on April 25, 1991. We purchased 460 Sunny Glen Ct. and ended up living in that home for 20 years until we decided to downsize. In August of 2010, we purchased a townhome at 1330 Longs Point, still in Woodland Park and on a golf course.
My retirement years here in Colorado have been filled with skiing, hiking, camping, playing handball, and grandparenting. Carole and I have also enjoyed traveling; throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico, gone on numerous cruises, visited Thailand, and even did home-exchanges in Canada and Great Britain.
After a trip to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, we decided to buy a 40 ft. Tollycraft Motor Yacht that we could moor in a quaint marina in Maple Bay on the Island and would spend a month or two at a time on the boat. Then, once we sold the boat, we purchased a cabin on a creek in San Isabel, CO, which was a wonderful getaway with much solitude. We enjoyed hiking and wood-burning fires in our fire pit on the deck as well as having our family and friends come visit.
Written by Jack, last entry made October 2015.
