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Jack Corman, 29 December 1942 – 30 November 2023, RIP

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand expresses its deepest condolences to the family and many friends of Jack Corman, who has died at home in Bangkok after a long illness.

Of Irish-American stock and raised in Boston, Jack was an FCCT life member of many decades standing. He bore a passing physical resemblance to the great Kennedy political clan in the US -- though there was no actual known connection.

Jack was a graduate of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado and also attended the East-West Center in Hawaii. He arrived in Southeast Asia in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, and spent time in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over seven years, ending his service career as a captain.

Always an intelligence officer, he was able to impart intimate knowledge of the ‘secret’ war in Laos to those who dared to delve. His library was voluminous, and he was a close reader of history with some interesting first-hand insights into the Vietnam War.

A keen student of political science, he was also a good mathematician, and handy with accounting. Jack spoke Lao and Thai and a smattering of Mandarin. After joining the Royal Bangkok Sports Club in 1972, he began to move in more ‘hi-so’ Thai circles, and was not of “the regular run bar crowd,” as one old friend put it. He was fascinated by Southeast Asia on every level, and went into business in Thailand after the Vietnam War ended. For many years, he worked with the White Group, a Bangkok-based conglomerate.

“Jack was indeed a very, very colourful character and a very dear and close friend,” said FCCT member Patrick ‘Shrimp’ Gauvain, who did so much to help his ailing friend and partner in mischief in the final years. 

“I knew Jack from the mid-70s -- a most colorful and remarkable man,” said FCCT member Owen Wrigley. “It is the end of the end of an era, for sure.”

Jack Corman’s cremation will take place at noon on Wednesday 6 December at Wat That Thong, 1325 Sukhumvit Road. The temple is located beside the Bangkok SkyTrain Ekkamai station, and those attending are asked to assemble before 11.30am. An informal wake will follow at Chesa, the Swiss restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 20.

Categories: Obituaries

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