Autumn Years Winter 2023/24

dent who was a professor at West Virgin ia University and now at the University of South Carolina guided his students to create a soccer-ball-kicking robot for use by disabled youngsters. Wheelchair bound students could smack a button on their chairs and get an attached machine to kick the soccer ball. “We were crying when a kid’s arm was moved so he could smack the button to get the machine to kick the ball. It was something he other wise could not have done. That felt bet ter than our world championship,” Jack says. “Robotics allow us to take what we do and help others.” Those others include people at the Ja wonio lifespan facility in New City, New York. A friend of Jack’s who is affiliated with Jawonio saw the May 2023 WCTV program about robotics and contacted Jack. One result is that team is working on a radio-control and pinewood-derby-

“We were crying when a kid’s arm was moved so he could smack the button to get the machine to kick the ball. It was something he otherwise could not have done. That felt better than our world championship,” Jack says. “Robotics allow us to take what we do and help others.”

type experience for the Jawonio residents. Another project was a robot arm for a re ceptionist, who is wheelchair-bound and has a tray on the front of his wheelchair. Because he cannot reach over the tray, they planned to build a robotic arm so that he could reach the phone. Jack’s daughter Camryn helped the team’s presentation at Jawonio. She is becoming a licensed occupational thera pist, inspired by the medical shows she watched with him while growing up. An emergency medical technician, he once thought he might become a surgeon. However, he did not want to spend an other 10 years in medical school, so he went into computer systems. Jack’s fam ily includes wife Rhonda, who is the head of operations for a New York City law firm. His other daughter is Alison, who is manager of business leadership with Momentum Worldwide, executing music and entertainment activations for American Express. He loves classic rock n-roll, and says the Madison Square Gar den performance by Elton John and Billy Joel was the best concert they ever saw. Jack and Rhonda like to travel to warm places and he loves the ocean, which he calls the most calming place to be. They traveled to Rome, Florence and Venice, Italy, and he raves about the fresh food there, having enjoyed a meal in a local Italian family’s home. Jack put his love of food to use when he helped pre

Jack with the 2012 robot, Iron Horse, which could shoot basketballs.

pare meals at New York’s Orangetown Jewish Center when it participated in a winter sheltering program called Help ing Hands for the Homeless of Rock land. “We cooked what we would want to eat to make them feel at home,” he says. So of course, Jack looks to a future of taking cooking classes and doing project work—including helping busi ness clients build systems and training the staff. Helping businesses is his “day job,” and his JGT Computer Solutions grew out of his childhood interest in science: topics such as biology, chemistry and

The Teadore family trip to Hilton Head.

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AUTUMN YEARS I WINTER 2023/24