Jack Harrison Oswald

Jack Harrison Oswald, Cinematographer, husband, father, and grandpa, passed away on Friday, November 17, 2023. He was 90 years old. Jean, his supportive wife of 67 years, preceded him in death in early 2022. Jack lived in the El Dorado Hills area for most of the last decade. Jack’s passing was attributed to complications of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) blood disorder.

Jack was born in DeKalb, Illinois on August 13, 1933. He was the son of Marion Benson and the caring older brother to Jane Oswald. He lived and graduated high school in DeKalb, before joining Air Force ROTC to attend Northwestern University in Evanston. There he graduated with a BA in Communications, met his future wife Jean, and advanced his passion for music, radio and TV productions.

After graduation, his Air Force career took him (as a Navigator) from Eniwetok (Search & Rescue for the Bikini Atoll testing), to Scotland (Search & Rescue and Scotch education), and then returned him to the US where the Air Force sent him to USC to obtain a Masters in Cinema. Out of film school, Jack was influential in working with the Pentagon as the Chief of Internal Media to upgrade recruiting media and public service radio and television programming to modernize the Air Force’s public image. After a Saigon tour supervising military film crews in Vietnam, he held the position of Liaison to the Secretary of the Air Force at Norton AFB (Southern California) where he was the executive producer of the monthly “Air Force Now” until he retired as a Lt. Colonel. (He was recently inducted into the Air Force Public Affairs Hall of Fame.)

Retired in Pasadena (California), he grew GOAL Productions into a second multi decade career where they created non-theatrical documentary, sales, training, and military productions. As GOAL he created extensive driver training (for US students, US military in Japan, and mining in Irian Jaya), and became the official filmmaker for the Tournament of Roses for nearly 2 decades. During this era he also joined the faculty of USC School of Cinema, and created a reoccurring joint GOAL & student documentary course featuring the annual Mammoth Lakes Jazz Jubilee.

Retired again, living winters in Gold Canyon (Arizona) and summers in Mammoth Lakes (California), Jack and Jean spent parts of the next decade traveling Scotland developing the “The Malt Project”. He was awarded for creating a series of Single Malt Scotch Distillery documentaries, which were a labor of love for all those involved. Jack and Jean also continued extensive world travels and cruise adventures with friends and family, spanning the oceans and 6 continents. Additionally, Jack and Jean were very involved as officers of the various homeowner associations they lived in.

After the loss of his wife Jean, Jack continued his travels with a trip through Portugal last year, and then an Alaskan cruise just a few of months before his passing. “Jack-Baby” influenced countless lives and will be remembered fondly.

Jack is survived by his son, Jeff Oswald of Irvine, CA; daughters Sheryl Allen (Michael) of El Dorado Hills, CA, and Catherine Oswald-Buff (Michael) of Oakland, CA; granddaughter Bethany Hicks (Zach) of Atascadero, CA; grandsons Matthew Allen of Sacramento, CA, and Jacob Allen of Oakland, CA; 2 great grandsons, and many loving friends all around the world.