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Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jack graduated from Robbinsdale High School in 1963. He joined the U.S. Navy and went on active duty during the winter of 1964, attending basic training at the Great Lakes Navy Boot Camp near Chicago, before reporting to his primary duty station at NAS North Island, San Diego. Jack served with an Anti-Submarine Warfare Squadron aboard the USS Kearsarge in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam and was awarded the Vietnam Expeditionary Medal in 1965.
In 1966 Jack returned to Minneapolis and was accepted by the University of Minnesota. Working almost full time as a night-shift computer operator for Honeywell Inc., taking full credit loads and attending summer school, Jack was able to pay his own way and graduate within three and one-half years, earning his Bachelor of Arts Degree by 1969. He then attended William Mitchell College of Law in 1969 and 1970, while working full time as an insurance investigator and attorney negotiator for State Farm Insurance Companies and Douglas Claims & Investigation Services.
With both parents experiencing long standing successful real estate careers, Jack was encouraged to enter the real estate profession. He sold forest land, farms, ranches, development property, lake homes and lots for United Farm National Real Estate Company in northern Minnesota from 1973 to 1975; then moved back to the Twin Cities area to train in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage with Calhoun Realty, a prominent state-wide commercial real estate company. Upon completion of his training and obtaining real estate brokers licenses in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, Jack sold lake resorts, hotels and motels within a two hundred mile radius of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Forming his own company in 1978, Jack continued his focus and specialization in lodging property sales through the following eight years. Upon completing the necessary educational requirements and passing the California Real Estate Broker licensing examination in 1986, Jack moved with his family to Santa Barbara. Working as a Hotel/Motel Broker for Sunset Company Realtors, the largest real estate company in Santa Barbara at that time, Jack became its’ top producer within two years, and formed Jack Spears Companies in early 1989. Since 1989, Jack has successfully supervised the operations of several lodging properties, handling both marketing and overall property management.
In 2001, Jack obtained his real estate broker’s license in Montana, continuing to sell only hotels. Jack has been an investor partner / operator in five California lodging properties since 1992, and is presently an owner of the 60 room Mountain Valley Inn at Missoula, and the Mountain Valley Inn & Suites with the Longhorn Casino at Helena, Montana.
In his “spare time” Jack enjoys spending quality time with his two sons, daughter-in-law and four grand children. Hobbies include a life-long passion for motorcycles, traveling, scuba diving, tennis, hiking traveling and boating on Flathead Lake at Bigfork.
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