The Century Club: John Smith 'Jack' Zink

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 2, 2007 by Marcia Shottenkirk

Driven to succeed, John Smith "Jack" Zink used his talents to strengthen and sustain a family empire.

Jack Zink was born in Tulsa in 1928. His father, John Steele Zink, had taught his son how to work with his hands and to solve technical problems through teamwork and experimentation.

His mother, Swannie, emphasized the importance of continued education, and Jack graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1950 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

The John Zink Co. had been founded in 1930 to produce burners for the oil industry, where the application of heat was needed to break crude oil into its component parts.

However, when oil production declined following World War II, the company began manufacturing consumer products such as floor furnaces, water coolers and space fans.

But as the company began to falter even more, Jack stepped in as a sales engineer.

John Zink had hoped his son could reinvigorate the company's position in the oil industry.

For nearly a decade, Jack was on the road, working with industrial clients who needed controlled heat applied to a variety of tasks, and, more specifically, smokeless flares.

Once the company was not only stabilized but growing, Jack established an international office in Mexico and subsidiaries and manufacturing plants in England, Holland, Germany, France and Italy.

As a registered professional engineer, he pioneered burners, incinerators and oxidizers for pollution control in the 1960s as environmental standards were more tightly regulated. In addition, he authored 35 patents on combustion and other equipment.

By 1972, Jack Zink had made the John Zink Co. the largest family- owned business west of the Mississippi River, employing 600 people.

After selling the John Zink Co., he founded ZEECO Inc. in 1980. The worldwide corporation designed and manufactured combustion equipment used in the petroleum refining and chemical processing industries. It also manufactured precision parts for the aerospace industry and molded fluoropolymer products for industry.

Jack's community involvement included being a lifetime supporter of the Boy Scouts of America and overseeing the operation of the 30,000-acre Zink Ranch through the John Steele Zink Foundation. Through the foundation, he also invested in the Tulsa Fairgrounds, the Salvation Army, the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Tulsa River Parks Project.

The industrialist was also a racing enthusiast whose cars won the Indianapolis 500 in 1955 and 1956. He was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in Indianapolis in May 2004.

He died in Tulsa on Feb. 5, 2005.

Both father and son left their mark on Oklahoma as industry innovators. In fact, Jack Zink frequently said there were five rules for success: "Never, never, never, never, never give up," and his life's philosophy was this, "To finish first, first you must finish."