Biography: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
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. 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]</ref>
Slick was a friend of many celebrities, including Hughes and fellow flier Jimmy Stewart. 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|date=June 2025} 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][4] 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. 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][5][6]
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][7]
Nicolas Cage was to have portrayed Slick in a movie, Tom Slick: Monster Hunter, but the project stalled.[8]
Art collection
Death
On October 6, 1962, Slick was returning from a Canadian hunting trip when his airplane crashed in Montana.[2][9] Reportedly, the aircraft disintegrated in flight.[9] A wing broke off in violent wind shear over the mountains.[9] He was buried in Mission Burial Park, San Antonio.[2]
See also
- Tom Slick: Mystery Hunter
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pittman, Kitty. "Slick, Thomas Baker (1883–1930)". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Oklahoma Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 19, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121119154449/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SL005.html. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Compton, James R. (1976). "Thomas Baker Slick, Jr.: Oilman, Philanthropist, and Pioneer in Research". https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slick-thomas-baker-jr.
- ↑ Times, A. m Rosenthal Special To the New York (1957-02-05). "TEXAN WILL LEAD 'SNOWMAN' HUNT; Will Investigate Tales That Strange Creature Roams Himalayas in Nepal" (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1957/02/05/archives/texan-will-lead-snowman-hunt-will-investigate-tales-that-strange.html.
- ↑ "History". https://www.swri.org/about-us/history.
- ↑ "Business: The Slick Brothers". Time Magazine. 28 January 1946. https://time.com/archive/6792840/business-the-slick-brothers/. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
- ↑ "Aviation: Slicked Up". Time Magazine. 5 March 1951. https://time.com/archive/6608129/aviation-slicked-up/. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
- ↑ "Apparatus for erecting a building" US patent 2715013, published August 1955
- ↑ Tom Slick: Monster Hunter movie trailer review pics pictures poster news DVD at The Z Review
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Texas Oil Magnate Dies In Air Crash", Miami News, October 5, 1962, p1
Sources
Biographies
- Coleman, Loren (1989). Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti. Boston: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-12900-3. https://archive.org/details/tomslicksearchfo00cole/.
- Coleman, Loren (2002). Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology. Fresno, California: Linden Press. ISBN 0-941936-74-0.
- Cooke, Catherine Nixon (2005). Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter. Paraview Inc. ISBN 0-9764986-2-6. (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 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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