Jim died of cancer Feb. 9, 2015, coming to his final rest in his beloved Teton Valley, Idaho.
Born in Chicago and raised in Evanston, Ill., he attended Andover and captained its football team. At Princeton, Jim majored in basic engineering and ate at Cottage Club. After graduation, he served in the Army, and then returned to work for his family business, American Automatic Typewriter Co., first in New York, and later in Chicago.
Jim was not back home for long before he married his next-door neighbor, Philbin de Got, his “brat little sister’s brat friend,” who would become a distinguished artist and the mother of four sons. In time they moved to Milwaukee and later, upon Jim’s retirement, to Victor, Idaho, more central to their dispersed family and, to Jim, a natural Nirvana. There, with one son’s family as neighbors and the other sons as frequent visitors, he and Philbin savored the beauty of the seasons and the kindness of the people there.
Jim returned that kindness, tutoring at the local elementary school, working with the Boy Scouts, serving as hospital chaplain, and singing in the choir of St. Francis Episcopal Church, where he had become senior warden.
The class sends sympathy to Philbin; their sons James Jr., Philip, David, and Stephen; and their nine grandchildren.