By Doug Carroll
GCU News Bureau
Services were held Sunday for Malcolm “Mack” Sloan, a popular GCU instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences whose passion for hockey was exceeded only by his love of life itself.
Sloan, of Peoria, died last Wednesday from complications brought on by post-surgical infection last fall. He was 72.
“He was a larger-than-life character,” said Brent Richardson, GCU’s executive chairman of the board, whose exercise regimen was overseen by Sloan, resulting in a close friendship between the two men.
“He had a charisma and a love of life that people gravitated toward. He was a great teacher and a positive influence on young people.”
Sloan’s relentlessly positive attitude in the face of multiple injuries and ailments made him a hero to his wife of 52 years, Sheila, and their two sons, Todd, a Phoenix attorney, and Thomas, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who lives in Baltimore.
“He did everything he needed to do every day to get on the field of life — and without complaint,” Todd Sloan said.
Mack Sloan was a native of a small town 100 miles north of Toronto, Ontario, and his hockey skills caught the attention of the Detroit Red Wings organization. When injuries cut short his playing career, he enrolled at the University of Miami (Fla.) and earned a degree in business administration, then went on to the Thunderbird School of Global Management and earned a master’s degree.
He taught at GCU for 15 years, initiating the University’s relationships with the Phoenix Coyotes and the nearby Arizona Recreation Center for the Handicapped (ARCH).
“He had a special place in his heart for handicapped people,” Richardson said.
The family asks that those who wish to honor Sloan’s memory make a contribution in his name to ARCH (www.archaz.org).
Contact Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
