John S. Jackson (21 February 1920 – 19 November 1991) was an Irish geologist and environmentalist, and is believed to be the first environmental consultant in Ireland.
After leaving school, Jackson worked in the family business, and passed the preliminary exam for Associateship of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland to study architecture.
In 1941, Jackson met his future wife, Sally (Mary Adina McCutcheon) at a dance in Alexandra College.
Jackson was accepted into University of Oxford in 1942, but instead joined the Royal Air Force in 1943 training in England and Miami as a pilot.
[1] It has been said that it was flying over North America that spurred his interest in geology, and after the war Jackson began studying natural science in Trinity College, Dublin in 1946.
The pair married on 6 November 1948 in Rathmines, and shared the care of their first child, born in 1950, to allow them both to attend lectures.
Jackson was a member of two government working parties that collected inventories of outstanding landscapes and sites of scientific interest in Ireland, which became what are now under EU legislation called Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
They retired to Ardmanagh, Schull, County Cork in 1988, with Jackson continuing to lecture and maintain an interest in mining and quarries.