Jim died November 26, 2008 in Greenville, North Carolina. He graduated from North Carolina State University in 1963 with a degree in Forestry. Jim started his Forest Service career as a smokejumper at Cave Junction. In 1963 he and his wife, Sarah, drove the Alaska Highway to his first permanent job on the Chugach N.F. After eight years in Alaska, Jim worked for the USFS in six other states and retired in 1996 as Forest Supervisor on the Monongahela N.F. in West Virginia.