Tom Slick

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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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> He was notable for discovering Oklahoma's then-largest oil field, the Cushing Oil Field.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

During the 1950s, Slick was an adventurer. He turned his attention to expeditions to investigate the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bigfoot<ref name=":1" /> and the Trinity Alps giant salamander.Template: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.Template:Citation needed Coleman continued his study of Slick in 2002 with Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.Template: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.Template:Citation needed Slick financed Peter Byrne's pursuits of yeti and bigfoot.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Slick was a friend of many celebrities, including Hughes and fellow flier Jimmy Stewart.Template: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.Template:Citation needed

Slick founded several research organizations, beginning with the forerunner of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in 1941.<ref name=":1" /> His most well-known legacy is the non-profit Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which he founded in 1947 to seek revolutionary advancements in technology.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed He also founded the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio in 1958 to do consciousness research.<ref name=":1" />

Tom assisted his brother, Earl F. Slick, in founding Slick Airways, one of the first US scheduled freight airlines.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1953 Trinity University awarded him an honorary doctor of science.<ref name=":1" />

In 1955 he was awarded a patent for the lift slab method of constructing concrete buildings.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite patent</ref>

He was an advocate of world peace.<ref name=":1" /> In 1958 he published the book, Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Nicolas Cage was to have portrayed Slick in a movie, Tom Slick: Monster Hunter, but the project stalled.<ref>Tom Slick: Monster Hunter movie trailer review pics pictures poster news DVD at The Z Review</ref>

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.Template:Citation needed

Death

On October 6, 1962, Slick was returning from a Canadian hunting trip when his airplane crashed in Montana.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Reportedly, the aircraft disintegrated in flight.<ref name=":2" /> A wing broke off in violent wind shear over the mountains.<ref name=":2">"Texas Oil Magnate Dies In Air Crash", Miami News, October 5, 1962, p1</ref> He was buried in Mission Burial Park, San Antonio.<ref name=":1" />

References

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Sources

Biographies

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Template:Cite book (author is Slick's niece and former director of the Mind Science Foundation)

External links

Patents

Template:US patent, Mill for Cutting Feathers, filed May 1945, issued May 1949
Template:US patent, Brush Puller, filed August 1947, issued December 1950
Template:US patent, Apparatus for erecting a building, (lift-slab construction), filed July 1948, issued August 1955

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