Memory Eternal, Fr. Jack Sparks +2/8/2010

Some people's lives are so full, and so amazing, and so BEAUTIFUL, that they cannot help but shine a light onto our own, and cause us to WANT to be better than we are, aspire to greater things than we have, and to love God more deeply than we've ever known. Memory Eternal, Fr. Jack Sparks

His life story is remarkable. Born in 1928, he was a child of The Great Depression era. He graduated from Jefferson Township High School in Indiana. He played football... he went to school at Purdue... he joined the Army and there met a pretty nurse named Edith. It didn't take him long to know he wanted to marry her... and she knew that she had to make her mind up quickly. They had four children, three sons and a daughter.
Jack was a professor of psychology at Penn State, and then became involved in the "Jesus Movement". He eventually was one of those baptizing people in the fountains at Berkley.
On February 8, 1987 he converted to the Orthodox church... about as far as one could appear to get from those earlier days; but truly was the destination of the journey begun in those earlier days.
He was the author of many books; but most importantly, he spear-headed the development of the Orthodox Study Bible as the Project Director. Links to some of the books he wrote are on Ancient Christian Defender.

But there are many others who tell his story better than I:

The Antiochian Orthodox Christian website
Ancient Faith Radio
Called a "Pioneer Evangelical to the Ancient Faith" on Catholic Online,
The Mat-Su Frontiersman 2/14/2010

To quote the best of the best: "On Monday this week, the V. Rev. Fr. Jack Sparks reposed in the Lord, after a long and fruitful life of serving Jesus Christ and His Church. Please be remembering him in your prayers, as well as his family, friends, students, and his brother priests. May we rejoice with heaven's angels, and the Saints who have run the race before us, that he finally has entered into the rest of his greatest wish: to see the Kingdom of God."