A native of Pretty Prairie, Kansas and the son of an Air Force pilot, Jack lived in a variety of places while growing up. After graduating from Washington University in St Louis he settled and began his illustration career in Dallas, Texas.
Much of his work parallels an interest in the outdoors, while some of the more conceptual illustrations are a result of waiting for the hatch or watching the sunset over West Texas quail country.
The results have been published in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, New York Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Afield, Field and Stream, GQ, Road and Track and Texas Monthly.
Annual Reports include Borg Warner, MCI, Transamerica, Halliburton, Brinker International, Herman Miller, Sony, Hartford Financial Services, United Technologies, Entergy and Readers Digest.
IBM, Citicorp, Exxon/Mobil, Budweiser, American Airlines, Champion Paper, Interstate Batteries, Remington Firearms, Leatherman Tools, Avia, Georgia Pacific, The Bronx Zoo, Sage Rods, Kendall Jackson, Pac Bell are among Unruh's many advertising assignments.
Unruh has appeared in Communication Arts Illustration Annual since its inception and has been in numerous shows of American Illustration, Graphis, AIGA and Print. Graphis featured an article, "Jack Unruh, Quick on the Draw." in the 2002 Sept/Oct issue.