Jack Bartley Follow

Jack Bartley lived on Oʻahu for almost five years while serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy in the 1970s, completing a WestPac/Vietnam tour on a Knox-class destroyer escort during that time. He later returned to the East Coast to earn his Ph.D. in ecology and became an associate professor at the University of Delaware. For fifteen years, Jack brought UD students to Hawaiʻi each January to study reef systems, volcanic origins, evolution, and Polynesian culture.

His column Educational Perspectives appeared monthly in the Newark Post for ten years. He published the romantic comedy Public Ed – A Novel in 2005, which remains available as an e-book. His fictionalized memoir of his time in the U.S. Navy, Smoke on the Water, was published by Koehler Books on April 15, 2025. The first book of his young adult series, Hilo Dome, was released by Histria Books on May 27, 2025, to be followed by The Seekers and The World Awakens.

Beyond writing, Jack has released two CDs of Celtic folk music with his former band “So’s Your Mom” and recently completed mixing a double CD of Americana music with his duo “Whiskey Creek.”

Now retired, he devotes his time to writing and music. Jack also serves as a docent at the James Farm Ecological Preserve near his home in Ocean View, Delaware, where he lives with his wife, Susan, Jesse the Dog, and Clementine the Cat.