Venerable Church Leader Jack Wesley Semones Passes Away at 96

Jack Wesley Semones, age 96, passed away in his home on Friday, November 4, 2022. Jack was born on June 17, 1926, near Pine Creek in Wheelersburg, Ohio. He was the eleventh of twelve children born to James Oscar Semones and Nellie Mae Willis. Jack loved and respected his parents and treasured his relationships with his four brothers and seven sisters.

Jack enlisted in the Navy at the age of seventeen on May 15, 1944, and attained the rank of Storekeeper Second Class while serving in New Caledonia on the South Pacific front of World War II. Jack received an honorable discharge from the United States Navy on June 3, 1946, and returned to Portsmouth, Ohio. Soon after, he met Betty Louise Anderson. They married on December 29, 1948, and shared over forty blessed years together. Jack and Betty raised three daughters, Tanya, Cheryl, and Suzanne. Betty died in 1989 of cancer. Two years later, he married Kennye Sue McGuire Gaultney. Kennye’s son, Grant, and her daughter, Kara, became like his own. For the next 31 years, Jack and Kennye loved and cared for each other, dearly. Theirs has been a life of abundance through the love and experiences shared together with their family and friends.

Jack attended Portsmouth University for a short time after the Navy. In August 1948, he moved to Utah where he attended The University of Utah. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Sociology and a minor in Physical Education in 1950. From there he attended George Williams College in Chicago where he prepared for a career as a YMCA executive. He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Group Work Administration and a minor in Physical Education in 1952.

From his early youth, Jack loved the YMCA. His first job as a YMCA professional was at Park Cities YMCA in Dallas. His title was Boy’s Work Secretary, like today’s Program Director. He was initially hired to build up the Indian Guide program for fathers and sons, but he also worked with the Gra-Y, Hi-Y and swim program. In 1957, he was given the opportunity to start an extension of the Park Cities YMCA in area north of Northwest Highway. With a passion for community and youth programs, Jack began to develop many successful activity, swim, and sports programs for youth. Jack was a great leader, creative entrepreneur, and gifted communicator in promoting the YMCA in the north Dallas area. He was instrumental in establishing one of the finest YMCAs in the country. However, if you asked him about his success, he would always give the credit to his creative staff, Board Members, parents, and the youth he served. Jack was offered a position with the National YMCA but did not feel good about the move for his family. He left full-time employment with the YMCA in 1969 seeking to provide his daughters with a college education. However, he never stopped campaigning and contributing in any way he could to the cause that he loved so much: The Town North YMCA. In celebration of Jack’s 93rd birthday in 2019, the Town North YMCA was renamed the Semones Family YMCA. He was so humbled and deeply honored. After leaving the YMCA, Jack served as Director of the SMU Mustang Club from May 1969 to May 1972 raising money for their athletic scholarships. When he left SMU, he went to work as a Vice President at Warren Clark Development Company. He loved using his talents to help establish the kind of neighborhoods that encouraged quality living for families. He retired in 1996 at the age of seventy.

Jack was a natural athlete. He loved baseball, basketball, softball, tennis, swimming, scuba diving, sailing, archery, hunting, and fishing. He excelled in sports all through high school. In the Navy, because he was only 5’9”, he was told he was too small to play with the regular Navy basketball teams. So, Jack began to play with the cooks. Eventually, he convinced those in charge to open up the league games to all players. His efforts led to the first interracial basketball games being played on the island. Jack always saw people as Individuals and children of the same God. Jack was offered a contract in the baseball minor leagues when he returned from the Navy, but instead of signing, he followed his father’s advice to pursue a college education. During his college years, in Utah, his Edgehill Ward basketball team went all the way to the All Church Finals a couple of times, and he excelled as a team member. Jack has been known to say, “Circulation is the cure to everything that ails you.” He loved being active and took care of himself, physically, so that he could then get on to the important things of life like providing and caring for his family, serving in his community, and serving in his church. Enjoying good health into his later years of life, Jack enjoyed playing many seasons of senior softball and went all the way to the Senior Softball World Series multiple times. This was in his sixties and seventies. Up until the final few weeks of his life, he met twice a week for a personal training session at the Semones Family YMCA continuing to set an example of “Spirit, Mind and Body” one of the traditional mottos of the YMCA.

Jack loved learning. Over his lifetime, he became proficient in many hobbies. During his photography phase, he had a dark room in his house. During his ranching years, he had land in Celina, the 8-Ball Cattle Company. He raised and trained many quarter horses and palominos and had about 35 head of cattle. His stallion, Scioto Sans Bar was a Grand Champion in Ohio. Jack did some woodworking in his backyard shed. He trained and hunted with his two dogs, Beau and Spook. He embraced advances in technology and even learned to use voice-activated software. Jack worked on his journal and family records and was a devoted genealogist.

Following his mother’s example, Jack was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was eight years old. His service in the church really began in his college years as he gained a stronger conviction and knowledge of his faith. Over his lifetime, he served the young men of the church in the BSA program, taught the youth in Sunday school and seminary, served as a counselor in two Bishoprics, served as Bishop of the Dallas VI Ward, and later, as a Counselor in the Lewisville Texas Stake Presidency. He made deep and lasting friendships with those he home taught and ministered to over the years. Jack and Kennye served a full-time mission for the church in The Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Finally, Jack and Kennye welcomed over 800 youth and adults and their families, including some of his own posterity into their home “one by one” as he served as Patriarch in the Lewisville and then Carrollton Stakes for over 20 years.

Jack is survived by his wife Kennye; his sister Florence LaRue Christenson; his children: Tanya Elmer (Jerry), Cheryl Elmer (John), Suzanne Semones, Grant Gaultney (Celeste), Kara Gonzales (Keith) 14 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. Jack was preceded in death by one of his granddaughters.

One of Jack’s familiar sayings in life was, “Always leave things better than you found them.” All who knew Jack would agree that he did just that. He left this earth, his community, and all those who knew him, better than he found them.