WILLCOX Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees
JACK POST (108)
1927 -
2012 COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
Jack Post was born September 17, 1927, in St. David Arizona. His parents, Clarence and Maude, had 7 kids, and Jack was right in the middle of 5 boys and 2 girls. He went to elementary school in St. David and attended Benson High School. In high school, he received 16 letters as he played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. Jack attended the University of Arizona for one semester where he studied agriculture. Later in life, Jack received an Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice.
Jack's dad, Clarence, was a rancher all his life so Jack grew up on a ranch and worked on the neighboring outfits at a very early age. Every summer he worked for the Wagon Rod outfit which was a large ranch that ran from Benson all the way to the Mexican border. Jack enjoyed the work, and he also enjoyed working with horses.
Jack loved to rodeo. He said, "All I wanted to do was rodeo, until I found out I couldn't beat nobody." He would work in the winter time so he could go "rodeo'en" in the summer. He loved to rope calves, team rope, bulldog, and he even rode some bareback horses. In 1945, he headed to California to rodeo, work construction, and rodeo some more. One of the best things he did while in California was go through the Cal Poly horse shoeing school. Being a horseshoer was a way to make money and it keeps you involved in the horse industry. It was said, "Jack does talk a lot so it could take you all day to get your horse shod."
In 1953, Jack met Louise Hooper, and they had a three month romance that has now lasted 59 years. Jack said, "If she would have known me for four months she would have never said yes." Jack and Louise have three children, Suzie, Cedar and Cindy.
Jack is best known as a brand inspector. From 1965 through 1989, two weeks shy of 25 years, he worked for the Arizona Livestock Sanitary Board. He inspected livestock from Tucson to Safford and from Willcox to Douglas. He enjoyed being around livestock and the ranchers. There was no doubt where Jack stood regarding brands and inspection papers. There was no grey area; he wanted to see the brand. Jack said, "I believed in the department and what it stood for." He believed in the laws.
Jack said, "In the early days of the Livestock Sanitary Board they hired you, you ran your district, you furnished your own truck, you negotiated your own starting wage," and Louise added, "the wife was expected to be home to answer the phone." As an inspector you carried an inspection book, a hide book and a railroad kill book. He used carbon paper and wrote with a pencil, then came the self-inspection books and all kinds of screw-ups. He wore a badge and was told that he had to have a gun and could wear it if he wanted.
Because of the gun responsibilities brand inspectors were sent through the Law Enforcement Academy where they were qualified two times per year. They would shoot about 300 rounds. Rapid fire- shoot with strong hand, reload and shoot with weak hand, reload. Jack said, "Some inspectors (that shall remain nameless) didn't do too well; one actually shot himself in the leg."
Toward the end of his brand inspection career, Jack was using his vacation days to help his dad, Clarence, and it should be noted that Clarence "C..E." Post was inducted into the Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2004.
Today Jack and Louise are retired, and they live on the slope of the Whetstone Mountains. Asked Louise to describe Jack and she said, "He loves to talk and he laughs a lot." Jack will still occasionally fire up the welder to fix a gate for a neighbor, but he enjoys sitting on his front porch with his best friend, his wife. Jack said, "She's the only one I get along with." Jack would like to be remembered as a fair person and a good family man.