Thomas James Obituary

Thomas Raymond James, the eldest of four children, was born August 23rd 1918 on a farm in “Possom Hollow,� outside Dierks, Arkansas. As a child he was known as “Raymond,� but later came to be called “Tom.� His loving parents, Arch and Lela James, raised their children well. They infused them with curiosity, including a willingness to explore the world beyond the comforts of home. (This trait seems to run through the James family tree, all the way back to John James, the immigrant ancestor, who arrived in Virginia in 1650.) Mr. James often expressed a profound appreciation for his parents, even crediting them with his being Valedictorian of his Dierks High School graduating class. Yet once he ventured forth on his own, he continued to succeed. In 1942 he received a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arkansas and then volunteered for the Army Air Corps. After basic training at Boca Raton, Florida, he was a cadet at Yale University and commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. He met his wife of 54 years, Barbara Hope Hazard, when he was stationed at Mitchell Field on Long Island. They were married in New York City's Riverside Church on April 22, 1947 and later settled in Southern California. Mr. James had a long and varied career, working as an inspector and crew chief at the Grand Coulee Dam and then as an engineer on numerous projects including “Sparrow 1� at Sperry Gyroscope, the intercontinental ballistic missile program at Aerospace Corporation, and the Air Force satellite-tracking network at TRW. This later project landed him in Colorado and then in a small town called Woomera in the Australian Outback. Being stationed so far from home had its advantages. This boy from “Possom Hollow� traveled around the world eight times, vacationing in scores of countries including England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Austria, Yugoslavia, Russia, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, China, Japan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and both North and South Korea. Mr. James ultimately retired at the age of seventy-two and settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he died March 18th at the age of ninety-one. Like his parents before him, Mr. James set a solid example for his family to admire and appreciate. And all who knew him are bound to miss the loving sparkle in his azure eyes. Mr. James will be buried at Evergreen Cemetery, 1005 S. Hancock Ave. following a 2 o'clock graveside memorial service on March 30th,. He is survived by his son, Thomas Hazard James of Pacific Palisades, California, his daughter, Susan Lee (James) Curnutte and his two grandsons, Thomas Cole Andreas and Christopher James Andreas, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and by his brother, Edward Arch James of Dublin, Georgia and his sister, Earnestine (James) Woodall of Little Rock, Arkansas.