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Jack Kenneth Eyerly was born in Portland, Oregon in 1935 and was raised in Salem, Oregon. Eyerly was, for most of his life, a resident of Portland where he was an active artist and involved with the arts community. While at Salem High School, Eyerly organized gallery shows for his fellow students and himself. He had early connections with artists from all across Oregon through his friendships with Carl Hall, Clifford Gleason, and his association with Louis Bunce. He attended the Colorado Fine Arts Center in 1954 but left after one semester when he decided that it was a "fake operation." Upon returning from Colorado, Eyerly became the director of the Salem Arts Association and curated shows at the Bush Barn Art Museum. In this position, Eyerly focused mainly on artists of the Pacific Northwest but also hosted one of the earlier Marcel Duchamp retrospectives. Starting in the 1950s and continuing until his death, Eyerly was a tireless advocate, facilitator, and friend of the arts in the Northwest.

Eyerly was highly focused upon his correspondence with hundreds of artists from the Northwest, in addition to maintaining consistent correspondence with artists and innovators from all over North America and beyond. Eyerly was a prolific connector of people, often offering extensive lists of artists, galleries, grants, museums, and nonprofit programs to his various correspondents, while at the same time working on his own projects to advance the arts. Eyerly was a board member of the Northwest Film Study Center, now the Northwest Film Center, during its early years at the Portland Art Museum, as well as a consultant and volunteer for the Portland Art Museum. He was also a longtime employee of Wacky Willy's, an Albertina Kerr-affiliated store that sold recycled electronics and parts while providing jobs for people with disabilities under the supervision of employees, such as Eyerly.

A collaborator with many individuals and groups both in an artistic or consultant role, he gave his time as a freelance curator, exhibit designer, grant advisor, grant writer, and grant editor for himself and others. Much of Eyerly's work was done free of charge or in exchange for a service or artwork, as often Eyerly was providing information to artists who were more able to pay with their work or time than with money. In several notes throughout the collection, Eyerly remarks that their artwork and friendship was more valuable to him than money.

One of the most well-documented cases of Eyerly's continual support of an artist was as an advocate for his friend, noted painter and teacher, Clifford Gleason. Prior to Gleason's death in 1978, Eyerly facilitated numerous projects for Gleason, in addition to assisting him on a more basic level. After Gleason's death, Eyerly spent the next seven years preparing an extensive retrospective of Gleason's works for the Blackfish Gallery, which debuted in 1985. Eyerly collected the paintings for the show himself and even prepared a talk of art criticism and notes about Gleason's work and life to be presented at the show. For the artist Brian Kazlov, a painter who died tragically young, Eyerly played a similar role in conceiving and executing a retrospective exhibit of the late artist's pieces. After both of their deaths, Eyerly was instrumental in not only in managing their artworks, but also their estates, making sure that their family members were taken care of. Taking on responsibilities beyond those of an arts facilitator was a common theme throughout Eyerly's life, as he treated the artists he worked with as close friends.

Eyerly's support of the arts went beyond being a facilitator of traditional mediums. Beginning in the early 1970s, he was a member of many different video art groups. He gave his time to support the development of films and short videos as respected modern art forms and helped to establish Portland as a haven for independent film and video art. His work as a board member for the Northwest Film Study Center allowed him to connect artists with the resources that they needed to bring new and innovative films to the screen. During his time as a board member, he investigated the creation of a Northwest Film and Video Archive, an idea which never came to fruition. Notably, Eyerly was also the founding member of the Portland chapter of Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), a group devoted to expanding art through interactions with technology. EAT was originally founded in New York City by a group of engineers and artists composed of Billy Kluver, Fred Waldhauer, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Whitman.

His work to connect the artists of the Northwest led to many interactions between different mediums, bringing together the traditional modes of painting and drawing with more experimental ones, such as puppet theatre or dancing for the disabled. Those who knew him described Eyerly as always having a new project that he was attempting to bring into the greater fold of Northwest Art. Eyerly passed away May 10, 2014 at the age of 78.