The following memorial was posted online with the April 22, 2015, issue.
Jim came to Princeton from the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn. He majored in psychology and, in upper-class years, took meals at the Wilson Society. After graduation, he attended Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University Seminary) for two semesters, but as his son, Matthew, explained, Jim decided he would be better at serving one-on-one as a physician rather than serving a church congregation as a clergyman.
He then enrolled at the University of Tennessee-Memphis where he earned his medical degree in 1969, with a specialty in psychiatry. In December 1968, he married Sandra Kay Anishanslin, a nurse. The couple had five children, Mary, John, Mathew, Alfred, and Marjorie. In 1977, Jim and Sandy returned to Columbia for further training.
Most of his career was as a family care physician with some practice as a psychiatrist. In 1981, Jim was called to missionary service with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He and his family spent a year on the island of Ebeye in Micronesia. Here he was in charge of a small hospital with only an assistant and a part-time dentist to help. Matthew recalls that conditions on the island were very poor and unhealthy. He also recounts Jim's experience with the local language; he was once dealing with a patient when "he pronounced the word for 'you're finished' too slowly, which made the word mean instead 'you can go vomit.'"
In his later years, much of Jim's psychiatric work was devoted to people in recovery from various addictions.
Jim and Sandy eventually divorced and he moved to Monteagle, Tenn. He died there in March 1993 of an undisclosed illness. Sandy and their five children survived him. There are now eight grandchildren.