Christopher H. Jackson - 1934-2024: A Lookback
On August 17 of this year, one of CM's beloved members of its faculty and administration, Mr. Christopher Jackson, passed away at the age of 90. As a way of honoring and remembering this legend, we asked former CM Principal Tom Beatty '68 to write a memoriam to the man who taught him as a student, hired him when he returned to CM as a math teacher, worked alongside him, and who Beatty revered as both a colleague and a friend.
Read on to find out more about the impact Mr. Jackson had on this institution.
Read on to find out more about the impact Mr. Jackson had on this institution.
It is a rare occasion when a person’s identity is known to the masses or within their community by a single word. The likes of Tiger, Ringo, Oprah, Magic, Elvis all come to mind.
Catholic Memorial lost its own mononymous person this summer. A person whose nickname would leave no doubt among the thousands of CM graduates from 1961 to 1998 as to who he was.
Christopher “Jet” Jackson, or simply “Jet,” was hired at Catholic Memorial High School by its first headmaster Brother Joseph G. McKenna as an English teacher in 1961. He was one of the first lay faculty members to be hired at CM behind Mr. Ronald S. Perry.
In his 37-year tenure, Jet left an enduring mark on the school he loved. His passion and pride for CM were instilled in those early years and deepened as his tenure continued. He revered Br. McKenna, saying he was the best leader he had ever known, and proudly strove to model his career after him. Jet treasured working with all the Christian Brothers and lay teachers, especially the younger ones who he would guide through the opening days of every school year. Former principal, Mr. Rich Chisholm said that Jackson was the consummate professional in every endeavor both inside and outside the classroom and the camaraderie he developed among students and teachers was the reason he remained at CM for his entire career.
Jackson’s skills were as diverse as they were accomplished. He felt honored and privileged to be selected as the first lay administrator at CM where he eventually held the positions of Assistant Headmaster, Vice Principal, Director of Admissions, Director of Development, Dean of Students and Chair of the English Department but in his soul, he cherished his years as a classroom English teacher. A longtime faculty member and Director of Guidance Bob Tegan reminds us, throughout all his years working in administration Jet always insisted that he would be allowed to teach one English class every year to enable him to remain connected to the students on their level.
He was my senior year English teacher in 1967. Incidentally, he would have been thrilled that I used the word mononymous in my opening. God love him as he undertook to expand our horizons by teaching topics such as logic through a deductive form of reasoning called syllogism. I think a simplified version of it goes something like this:
CM loves all great teachers.
Chris Jackson is a great teacher.
Therefore, CM loves Chris Jackson.
Chris Jackson was an essential influence on my life in one momentous way. In September of 1974, I was coaching cross country at another local high school, and we had a meet against Catholic Memorial. After the meet, one of the CM coaches told me that a mathematics teacher had just left CM unexpectedly and asked me if I would be interested in applying for the job. I told him I was, and he set up an interview the next day with the vice principal who was Chris Jackson.
At the end of the interview, Mr. Jackson handed me two books – a Geometry and an Algebra
textbook – and told me the best way he could determine if someone could teach was to observe them. I was to come in the next day and teach for the entire day. Each of these five classes would be observed by either the principal, the mathematics department chair or himself, and at the end of the day it was Mr. Jackson who would determine my fate.
Not the ideal scenario for a good night's sleep. But before I knew it, I was introducing myself to a class of 25 somewhat baffled sophomores and talking about the difference between a line segment and parallel planes. Obviously, everything worked out and, ironically, I conducted my first homeroom that following Monday in Donahue Hall, where it all started for me ten years prior as a CM student myself. Jet saw something in me that I’m not sure even I realized. He put me on a path for a 45-year career at CM that I wouldn’t change for anything.
One of the many gifts that Jet was blessed with was his voice, and he knew how to use it, whether it was to silence a 1,200 student-full auditorium or address a parent-teacher school function. His fullthroated thunderous baritone could stop students in their tracks but just as effectively could be toned down to be calming, cajoling and melodic when hosting a fundraiser, a graduation ceremony or a class reunion. He was the master of the Master of Ceremonies.
To appraise how his persona was perceived at CM, Jackson was a figure straight out of central casting. He was tall, had ramrod-like posture, complete command of any room he entered, was always impeccably dressed, and when he lit up his signature, vintage, wooden pipe, he could have walked on to the set of the Broadway premier of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Jackson’s comprehensive knowledge and considerable literary talents were legendary, and his students were certainly the beneficiaries of this. Longtime CM Mathematics Chair Joe Perfetti reminded me that some of Jet’s skills weren’t always so evident and on display. According to Mr. Perfetti, “Chris was an excellent cruciverbalist (Mr. Jackson would make you look that one up!). We used to do the New York Times double acrostic together each week.” And as only Mr. Perfetti could add, “We were both pretty good, and always finished them.”
Jet was an avid theater and museum patron. I got a glimpse into his devotion of the arts whenseveral CM faculty members and their wives decided to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and then go to dinner. I can still remember Jet moving from room to room in the museum as if on a mission and then suddenly calling out to his wife, “Pat, I found the other Botticelli.” It made his night.
Chris was devoted to his wife Pat and two daughters. He also found some quality time for his other love, the Walpole Country Club. There, he was right at home, his second home, amidst the fairways, the cribbage boards, and the card games.
As Mr. Ron Perry was to the genesis and preeminence of CM athletics, Mr. Chris Jackson was his equal at establishing the underpinnings of academic excellence at the school’s founding. The work ethic of individuals in those early CM days was astounding with Perry teaching six classes of fifty students and Jackson simultaneously holding positions of Vice-Principal, Director of Admissions, and Dean of Students, while still teaching one class every day.
For so many years Chris Jackson was in the vanguard of CM leadership cultivating and promoting the ideals of Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice. And as a proud veteran of the United States Air Force, I’m sure he’d be honored to hear this phrase bestowed on him for what he meant to the Catholic Memorial community: “Mr. Jackson, Thank you for your service.”
I think it is safe to say that Br. McKenna would have been proud of it all.
Tom Beatty ‘68
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