John S. "Jack" Alioto was born in San Francisco during The Great Depression. As a child, his family moved down the California coast to the town of Salinas, where John was raised. He graduated from Salinas High School, and Hartnell Junior College, and then began his career working for a local newspaper, The Salinas Californian. At the same time, he began his own family. Later, following his older brother Robert's lead, John moved his family to New York in 1968. Initially he worked for the Poughkeepsie Journal. He then formed a construction company, Alioto Builders, and tried his hand at home construction. By 1970, John decided to transition from construction to education. He moved his family to New Jersey, and began teaching industrial arts in Hackensack, N.J. At the same time, he earned his bachelor's degree and teaching credential from Montclair State University. He later completed a master's degree in education administration from Montclair State, and held his first administrative position in the Pequannock, N.J. school district.
John's career as an administrator led him next to a principalship at Lisbon Regional School in Lisbon, New Hampshire. After two years there, John moved back to California in 1976. He held administrative positions in Middletown and Upper Lake, in Northern California, and finished his career as the superintendent of schools in Soledad.
After retiring, John and Patty relocated to Orrville, Ohio in 1995, following her transfer by the J.M. Smucker Company. John, in his trademark style, quickly became a valuable member of the community. Through his talents on the golf course and in the building trades, along with his generous nature and winning personality, Orrville became his adopted hometown. He worked part-time at Ace Hardware in Orrville, and was the Head Golf Coach at Orrville High School, where he molded his teams to represent the community in a competitive and sportsmanlike fashion. He also served proudly on the board of directors of the Orrville Boys & Girls Club and was named Volunteer of the Year by the Orrville Rotary in 2010.
John lived life to the fullest, with a style all his own. He was as expert at building furniture as he was at leading a school district, as passionate discussing politics as he was discussing the state of the NFL, and as committed to educating the children of each community in which he lived as he was in raising his own children.