Thomas Baker Slick Jr. (May 6, 1916 – October 6, 1962) was aSan Antonio, Texas-based inventor, businessman, adventurer, and heir to an oil business. Slick's father,Thomas Baker Slick Sr., a.k.a. "The King of the Wildcatters", had made a fortune during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1910s.[1][2] He was notable for discovering Oklahoma's then-largest oil field, theCushing Oil Field.[1]
During the 1950s, Slick was an adventurer. He turned his attention to expeditions to investigate theLoch Ness Monster, theYeti,[3]Bigfoot[2] and the Trinity Alps giant salamander.[citation needed] Slick's interest incryptozoology was little known until the 1989 publication of the biographyTom Slick and the Search for Yeti, byLoren Coleman.[citation needed] Coleman continued his study of Slick in 2002 withTom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.[citation needed] That book mentions many of Slick's adventures, in politics, art, science, andcryptozoology, including his involvement with theCIA andHoward Hughes.[citation needed] Slick financedPeter Byrne's pursuits of yeti and bigfoot.[4]
Slick was a friend of many celebrities, including Hughes and fellow flierJimmy Stewart.[citation needed] Stewart, for example, assisted a Slick-backed expedition in smuggling a piece of thePangboche Yeti hand back to England for scientific analysis, Loren Coleman was to discover from Slick's files and confirmation from Stewart before his death.[citation needed]
Slick founded several research organizations, beginning with the forerunner of theTexas Biomedical Research Institute in 1941.[2] His most well-known legacy is the non-profitSouthwest Research Institute (SwRI), which he founded in 1947 to seek revolutionary advancements in technology.[2][5] SwRI continues to advance pure and applied science in a variety of fields fromlubricant and motorfuel formulation tosolar physics andplanetary science.[citation needed] He also founded theMind Science Foundation in San Antonio in 1958 to do consciousness research.[2]
Tom assisted his brother,Earl F. Slick, in foundingSlick Airways, one of the first US scheduled freight airlines.[2][6][7]
In 1953Trinity University awarded him an honorary doctor of science.[2]
In 1955 he was awarded a patent for thelift slab method of constructing concrete buildings.[2][8]
He was an advocate ofworld peace.[2] In 1958 he published the book,Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan.[2] He funded the Tom Slick World Peace lectures at theLBJ Library, and the Tom Slick Professorship of World Peace at theUniversity of Texas.[9]
Nicolas Cage was to have portrayed Slick in a movie,Tom Slick: Monster Hunter, but the project stalled.[10]
Slick was an avid collector of modern art. His collection was surveyed by theMcNay Art Museum with an exhibition and catalogue titledTom Slick: International Art Collector.[citation needed]
On October 6, 1962, Slick was returning from a Canadian hunting trip when his airplane crashed in Montana.[2][11] Reportedly, the aircraft disintegrated in flight.[11] A wing broke off in violent wind shear over the mountains.[11] He was buried in Mission Burial Park, San Antonio.[2]
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