Jack Arnold Thoner

Jack Arnold Thoner was born in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, on May 22, 1933, to Evelyn (Tony) Thoner and Winifred Drenk. A builder and real estate developer, he created the Northgate Forest subdivision in North Houston, along with the Northgate Country Club and its 18-hole golf course, all of which he established and built between 1981 and 1985, later adding an additional nine holes. He built many of Northgate’s original homes and continued developing residential communities within its boundaries over the ensuing years.

Jack took particular pleasure in creating a place that was not only well built, but delightful to live in. He dedicated himself to the details: Northgate’s wide and curving roads, abundance of trees, lush landscaping, decorative iron gates, and generous green spaces. He was immensely proud of what Northgate Forest became, both as a built environment and as a community. It was also his own home for many years, where he and his wife, Gloria, formed lasting friendships and enjoyed countless evenings, gatherings, and celebrations with friends and neighbors at the country club.

He is survived by Gloria Thoner, his wife of 66 years; his sons, Craig Thoner and William (F) Thoner; his daughter, Amy Thoner, and son-in-law Paolo Eduardo Duque; and his son-in-law Dennis Smith. In 2020, he lost his daughter Jill Thoner Smith to breast cancer.

At 93, Jack was deeply contented with the life he had lived. He spent his early childhood in the small town of Ellsworth, where some of his happiest memories included sledding or ice skating with his gang of school friends and visiting dairy-farming relatives nearby. Midway through his childhood, his father, a dentist, sold the family’s furniture and possessions and moved them west to Los Angeles, first to Atwater Village and later to Glendale, where Jack attended Hoover High School. He often spoke of how his Wisconsin childhood had grounded him for the very different life that awaited him in California.

In Los Angeles, Jack took on a paper route and began picking up some of his earliest lessons in business. Later, while attending the USC School of Business, he continued working in newspaper delivery, rising at the crack of dawn to distribute Los Angeles Times newspapers to his own young cohort of paper boys at Echo Park Lake while most of his Delta Chi fraternity brothers were sleeping.

Jack had early inklings that he wanted to become a developer. His father would take the family on Sunday drives through Beverly Hills to look at its stately homes and landscapes, and Jack later explained that rather than becoming a dentist, doctor, or lawyer, he imagined creating beautiful and enduring environments for people to live in and enjoy.

After graduating from USC, his first job was in the commercial real estate department of a downtown Los Angeles bank, where his assigned territory included the heart of the Fairfax–La Brea area. It was also there that he met Gloria, an assistant in his department. He waited until after leaving the bank to ask her out. They would go on to share 66 years of marriage, settling first in Orange County.

With his friend and business partner Jim Birmingham, Jack later formed a development company that built many commercial office buildings near Old Town Tustin, as well as more than 20 garden-style apartment communities throughout Tustin, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, and Westminster. Among them was Tres Vidas Apartments in Little Saigon, which he continued to operate through the time of his passing with two of his most dedicated and favorite longtime employees, Sheila and Phi. Over the years, he came to the conclusion that sacrificing some additional dwellings in order to create more generous green spaces—places where residents could gather, walk, breathe, and enjoy their surroundings—was simply the right thing to do. He later built several more garden-style apartment communities in Dallas before moving to Houston and undertaking what would become his most enduring creation, Northgate Forest.

Jack loved sports and fitness, both as a participant and a spectator. At 40, he quit smoking and took up distance running, heading out nearly every morning and continuing the habit well into his late seventies. For many years, he began his day with a three-mile route through the streets of Northgate, often dragging his daughter Amy along on summer mornings during her high school years. Back in his California days, he ran two marathons, including one alongside Craig and Bill, and took great competitive interest in watching all four of his children compete on the Foothill High School (and later Westfield) cross-country and track teams. He also enjoyed running countless 10K and 5K races over the years with all of his children.

He played basketball on his U.S. Army team while stationed in Panama, and volunteered as a Boys' Club of Tustin basketball coach when his sons were young. But Jack most identified as a devout USC Trojan, and perhaps no sporting event pleased him more than a USC football game. In later years, he also loved evenings watching Houston Rockets basketball with Gloria and his family, eventually joined by his Portuguese son-in-law, Edu, whom Jack—never one to underestimate his own expertise—would concede was “almost equal” to him in basketball knowledge and enthusiasm.

Jack most loved the comfort of home, especially sitting alongside Gloria reading their morning newspapers, with The Wall Street Journal a particular favorite. The two took annual summer vacations with their children while they were growing up and, in later years, traveled together as a couple. There were also football road trips with longtime high school and Army friends to see USC play Notre Dame, as well as adventures through Europe and Asia, including Hong Kong and Vietnam, with newer friends from the Northgate community. While traveling, Jack often sought out areas known for exceptional homes, always curious to see their architecture, details, and special touches.

Jack was not a religious man. His father had admired the writings and ideas of H. L. Mencken, and Jack inherited some of that skepticism, along with an enjoyment of playful banter on the subject. But his own sense of obligation to others ran deep. He was a generous provider who believed in helping family members, employees, friends, and charities in times of need or disability, and sometimes simply to help create opportunities. His life was shaped by long hours of work and problem-solving, determination, and self-discipline, and during hard times he could often be heard consoling others with the reminder, “This, too, shall pass.” But he also believed in the rewards that made all that effort worthwhile: a fine trip, a well-earned piece of homemade pie, a great sporting event, or the emotional release of an epic movie watched beside his wife.

In the days before his passing, Jack reflected on how lucky he had been. For so many years of his long career, he had finished his workday and made the beautiful mile-long drive from his office through Northgate Forest—the trees, streets, homes, golf course, friends, and community he had helped bring into being—and arrived home each evening to Gloria. He could hardly believe his good fortune.