Jack Finnerty was born in Cheyenne in 1939. His father bought the M Bar Ranch in 1945 and Jack at the age of six became a main cowhand. He says he became a cowboy because he was too young to build fence.
Jack attended high school at Saint Mary’s in Cheyenne and attended college for a short period of time at the University of Wyoming. In 1960, he married Louise Munson who was a great cowboy herself. They lived at Slater on the ranch and raised horses and Hereford cattle.
Jack always looked to the future of the cattle industry. He trained at CSU to be able to preg test and perform C-sections on cattle. In the 1980s, Jack and his partner ran cattle near Split Rock and this partnership continued for many years before he got out of the cow/calf operation and stopped leasing the ground.
Rodeo was a big part of his life and an extension to hone and fine tune his cowboy skills. He won many awards for bareback, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping.