Art Jackson, Olympic Medalist, Passes

[Hap Rocketto]

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Charles Jackson USAFR(RET) passed away on January 6, 2015 at the age of 96.

The Olympic bronze medalist and World Champions participated in three Summer Olympic Games, 1948, 1952, and 1956, three ISSF World Shooting Championships, 1949, 1952, 1954 and two Pan American Games, 1951 and 1954, in which he established several world records and won numerous gold medals. Jackson was elected to the United States International Shooting Hall of Fame in 1999

Jackson's shooting career started at Brooklyn Technical High School, was interrupted by World War II where she served as a US Army Air Forces bombardier in the Pacific Theater, and resumed with the 1948 London Olympics.

He was a transitional figure in US International shooting. Jackson, the first US 300 meter international competitor after World War II, was taught the kneeling position by Morris Fisher, the last US 300 meter competitor before World War II. As one of the three original rifle shooters to form the US Air Force Rifle Team he won the 1951 President's Match

Jackson retired from international competition in 1957 when he joined the Central Intelligence Agency. Upon retiring from the CIA in 1975 he resumed competition and was a firing member of gold medal 1985 US Palma Team as well as the 1988 and 1992 squads.

He gifted the Henry Fulton Trophy, awarded to the high scorer in the Palma Team match, to the NRA in 1997. In a case of turnabout being fair play Mrs. Gloria F. Huckaby, the youngest granddaughter of Henry Fulton, the first person to win the Wimbledon Cup in 1875, donated the Arthur C. Jackson Trophy to the NRA to be awarded to the highest scorer shooter at the World Black Powder Long Range International Championships.

Jackson, a frequent contributor to The American Rifleman in the decades of the 1950s and 60s, contributed his extensive and invaluable knowledge and expertise to the development of the modern rifle shooting sports.