10/26/2026
Sandy Skillicorn
Interview conducted and written by Jill Holmes
Sandy moved from Monteray to Springfield to be near her daughter.
Born in Southport, Connecticut, Sandy moved with her family to Carmel, California, where her father founded an investment firm. And that’s where she met and married John. “Happy Jack” Skillicorn. (Skillicorn sounds like it should be an American Indian name, but it’s actually a name from the Isle of Mann.)
Jack joined the Air Force and worked in communications. He was sent to Washington DC and assigned to the strategic air command (SAC). His next stop was Thailand where he helped build the computer center that monitored military activity in North Vietnam. Sandy says that while there she wrote to her every single day.
Deciding to leave her two young daughters with their grandparents and against the wishes of her uncle, Henry Luce (founder of Time magazine), she set off for Thailand, accompanied by two aunts, one of whom was on the board of the international YWCA- which made traveling fairly easy. She had a joyful reunion with Jack in Udon, Thailand. She says there were only two hotels in Udon and only one had indoor plumbing.
Back home in Menlo Park, Jack got a job with Sherwin-Williams. He went on to become Monterey County comptroller and Treasurer of the city of Carmel.
Sandy took classes in accounting and was licensed by the IRS to prepare tax returns. She and her husband bought an accounting practice.; she did the accounting and “Happy Jack” handled public relations. They were married 60 years. 

