John ‘Jack’ Harvey Slep

Mr. John “Jack” Harvey Slep, 91, of Ellijay, died Saturday, July 16, 2022, at his residence.

He was born Jan. 6, 1931, in Trenton, N.J., to the late William H. and Sara Jane Miller Slep.

He was a high school graduate of Bolles Military School in Jacksonville, Fla., class of 1948, where he was an honor student and state champion swimmer. He served in the Korean and Cold War, 1950-1956, in the USAF Security Service/Air Intelligence as a Russian-speaking interrogator, interpreter, translator, and radio intercept operator, having spent a year at the Army Language School, Monterey, Calif., (presently the Defense Language Institute) and Russian Institute, Columbia University, NYC, N.Y., as one of 10 selected for a special course. He served at the Armed Forces Security Agency (presently the National Security Agency), Arlington Hall, Va.; St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, 36 miles from Siberia, Russia; Tripoli, Libya and Germany.

After being honorably discharged, he attended the University of Florida, Gainesville, from which he graduated in two years with a B.S. degree with honors. He worked for McGraw-Hill Book Co. under contract with the USAF Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, as chief translator in the Golden Eagle Project.

Simultaneously, he was an evening Russian language instructor teaching basic Russian to Strategic Air Command (SAC) pilots and crews, as well as a part-time freelance and translator at night for various American agencies publishing Russian scientific and technical journals.

Later, he was hired to work for Itek Corp., the developer of spy-in-the-sky cameras, in Ossining, N.Y., as a computational linguist in the development of machine translation, all the while freelancing Russian-to-English journals at night for his ever-growing family.

In 1966, he left industry to become a full-time freelance Russian translator at home. Over the course of the next six-plus decades, he regularly translated some 70 different Russian scientific and technical journals, from astrophysics to zoology, abstracted Russian oil and gas journals for the American Petroleum Institute and translated numerous books on diverse subjects.

He is preceded in death by first wife, Cora “Kokie”; brother, William “Bill” H. Slep III; and daughter, Robin Marie Willis.

He is survived by wife, Karen Slep, of Ellijay; daughter and son-in-law, Laura Jane and Jim Gassler, of Georgetown, S.C.; son and daughter-in-law, Kurt and Dora, of Charlotte, N.C.; sons and daughter-in-law, Scot and Lucy, of Rocky Mount, N.C.; Shawn, of Cumming, Derek, of Charlotte, N.C.; stepson and daughter-in-law, Chad and Missy West, of Ellijay; stepdaughter and son-in-law, Heather and Josh Howard, of Ellijay; 19 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Jack’s parting words were: “I love you all. Dearly! No tears, just cheers! We live to die, and now I died to live with him, hopefully! Love one another as I have loved all of you, this is a final request ...”

A Mass of Christian burial was held at 2 p.m. Friday, July 22, 2022, from the Good Samaritan Catholic Church with Father Carlos Vargas officiating.

Interment followed in Yukon Cemetery.

He was a long-time member of the Good Samaritan Catholic Church.

Pallbearers were Kurt Slep, Scot Slep, Shawn Slep, Derek Slep, Jim Gassler, Ed Willis, Chad West and Josh Howard.

The family received friends from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday, July 22, 2022, at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Knights of Columbus or St. Vincent de Paul Society, Good Samaritan Catholic Church of Ellijay.  Flowers die, aid to the needed, it’s forever.

P.S. from Jack: “The secret of a long life is, don’t die!” Live long and with a song in your heart, a song of your choice, as long as it’s before 1980, maybe an Elvis Presley spiritual! See you later, God bless!”

Bernhardt Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.