James Alfred Avirett ’33

Jim Avirett died Feb. 10, 2001, at his home in Cumberland, Md., of a heart attack. He was 90.

I believe there was no member of our class who worked longer and more industriously than Jim. He practiced general law at One Washington Street in Cumberland from 1936 until his death. He graduated from Episcopal H.S. in Alexandria, Va., was Phi Beta Kappa, chair of the Democratic Campaign Committee, and on the 150 lb. crew at Princeton. Jim received his law degree from Harvard in 1936. He served for 30 years with the Department of Justice as the commissioner and magistrate for Western Maryland. He was legal counsel for Columbia Gas of Maryland, LaVale Sanitary Commission, and Allegany Community College and had been a member of the Federal Communications Commission. During WWII he served on the judge advocate's staff as a major. In 1949 he married Salena Sharp, who died in 1999. He was a communicant of Emmanuel Church in Cumberland.

Jim is survived by a son, Alfred Jr., and two daughters, Sarah Avirett Hoover and Anne Avirett Dilts, and five grandchildren. Our classmate has set a work record that will be hard to beat. He will be greatly missed.

The Class of 1933