John "Jack" McAuliffe's Obituary
John (Jack) McAuliffe, 93, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and recently proud great-grandfather left this life to spend eternity with his Lord on August 1, 2025, in Dallas surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Born in Cambridge, MA, on June 15, 1932, he was a salesman all his life, as a preteen selling his services shoveling snow from neighbors’ driveways and walks, and at 14 when he began selling peanuts and popcorn at Fenway Park, until in his mid-70’s retiring from computer sales. The peanuts and popcorn and an Irish-Catholic Depression-era work-ethic paid his way through Boston College from where he graduated at 20 and continued, only briefly interrupted by his service to his country as an officer in the U.S. Air Force overseas. Married just weeks before he deployed, Jack returned to civilian life to move across the country with his young family from job to better job, ultimately planting roots in Dallas and raising his family and eventually doting on his grandchildren.
Jack had an affinity for racing since he was 14. That year of his life was an imprint for the rest of his life, the two sides of Jack, as at 14 his father told him to get a job to help support the family, and at 14 his mother would lie about his age to get him into the dog track. He had a favorite story that if you had ever met him twice, you would have heard it at least three times. It was ostensibly about a horse he owned winning a stakes race, but it was really about family and friends, being smart and being lucky, and about him being a bit of a character, which he enjoyed immensely. Jack won his final bet on a horse race with just a few weeks left in this life.
Jack was preceded in death by his true love and wife of over 66 years, Grace McAuliffe, his parents, Mary and John (Jack) McAuliffe, and his brother Jerome McAuliffe. He is survived by his son, Daniel McAuliffe, his three daughters, Mollie McAuliffe, Amy and her husband Ken Smith, Sara and her husband Tony Arnold, as well as his eight grandchildren, John McAuliffe and his wife Paige, Kirk Smith and his wife Ashley, Brent Smith and his wife Sarah, Devin Arnold and his wife Brittany, Caroline Alexander and her husband Austin, Elise McAnulty and her husband Heys, Avery Arnold and his wife Brittany, and Brice Smith, his four great-grandchildren, Maverick Arnold, Jack Arnold, Adeline Grace McAuliffe, and yet unnamed Arnold, his sisters, Mary Jane Songer and Martha Johnson, and numerous nieces and nephews and their families.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Rita’s Catholic Community where Jack was a parishioner for over 50 years on August 20, 2025, at 11:30 am. A private burial will follow at Restland Cemetery in Dallas. In lieu of flowers, donations to Dementia Society of America or Faith Presbyterian Hospice would be greatly appreciated.
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