Newarker's posthumous donation 'changes everything' for Pencader Heritage Museum

A lifelong Newarker, John Slack Sr. had a passion for local history and especially loved the Pencader Heritage Museum, which he helped found.

“His heart and soul was in that museum,” Slack’s widow, Merle, said. “He was just so proud of it, so proud of the people that work there and the time and energy everybody puts in. He just loved it.”

Before Slack died in 2022 at the age of 84, he made sure that the museum would continue for generations to come by bequeathing $50,000 to the museum and its parent organization, the Pencader Heritage Area Association.

“He didn’t want to see it fail, and he knew that they could use money,” Merle said. “Before he even got sick, he made up his mind that he was going to leave that money to Pencader.”

The donation “changes everything” for the museum, Pencader president Keith Jackson said.

“It’s phenomenal, it’s huge,” Jackson said. “We’re used to operating on a shoestring budget, and this gives us a little bit of breathing room.”

The donation is structured as a matching gift, meaning that the $50,000 will go into an escrow account to be disbursed as Pencader raises funds to match it. That was Slack’s way of encouraging other people to donate to the museum

“It’s an exciting challenge that we hope the public is going to be able to help us out with,” Jackson said.

Pencader plans to set aside some of the money as an endowment to support the museum in perpetuity. The funds also will be used for exhibit supplies, archiving materials and other supplies needed to keep the museum running.

“Little things that most people would think, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal’” Jackson said. “But when you have no money and you’re an all-volunteer organization, it’s a huge deal.”

Born in 1937, Slack grew up on East Chestnut Hill Road, near the railroad tracks. The giant oak tree that now stands between the lanes of the highway was in his front yard before the house was demolished to expand the highway.

Later in life, he enjoyed telling friends and family about the prisoner of war camp that was located across the street from his house, where Pencader Plaza is today, during World War II.

“He would go over there and talk to the guards when he was little,” Merle said.

Slack graduated from Newark High School and the University of Delaware and served as a captain in the Army Reserve. For more than 50 years, he worked as an insurance agent for Nationwide, working out of an office just a stone’s throw from the house where he grew up.

“He was the most wonderful, kind, gentle, generous, funny man,” Merle said. “He had a dry sense of humor, but he was hysterical. He made me laugh all the time. That’s what really attracted me to him when I first met him.”

Throughout his life, Slack was a history buff and was particularly interested in the history of Newark and Pencader Hundred.

“He loved the fact that there were revolutionary soldiers there, that they fought battles there,” Merle said.

He eventually joined with a group of several other Newarkers to come up with ways to preserve the history of Pencader Hundred, which encompasses western New Castle County from southern Newark to just below the canal.

In its early years, the Pencader Heritage Area Association sponsored lectures and installed interpretative signage.

In 2006, it struck a deal with the state to rent a restored barn that was once part of the historic Dayett Mill property on Route 72, just south of Old Baltimore Pike. The following year, the Pencader Heritage Museum opened, and the organization has continued to add new exhibits through the years.

Slack’s game-changing donation comes at an important time for the museum, which is expecting to see an increase in visitors when the nearby Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site opens in a couple years.

The museum is also working on new events this year, such as an expanded re-enactment of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge in September and a Halloween-themed event.

Jackson said he hopes that publicity about the donation introduces the museum to a new audience.

“That says something,” he said. “That lets people know that yeah, we’re serious and we’re worth it and we’re not going anywhere.”

Merle said she knows her late husband would be proud to see the effect his donation will have on the museum, though she noted that he never sought attention for the work he did for the organization.

“He didn’t want the recognition or admiration or applause. He didn’t want any of that,” she said. “He wanted to be behind the scenes.”