Thursday, October 15, 2020
Jim was my friend Kimberley's dad. She introduced me to him years ago when I was trying to figure out how to be a freelance writer. I did a story about his purple martin project, and how these gregarious aeronauts were believed to consume many mosquitoes as they flew about during their summer nesting seasons. I sold the story to a farming magazine -- maybe my first freelance story. Jim was very generous explaining how the martins nested, what you had to do to be a caretaker, the birds' habits, etc. If I had to name one event that led to my lifelong care for the environment, it may well have been this little interview so long ago. In addition to Jim's other many accomplishments, his "hobby" created ripples that inspired a younger person to stand up for the earth's wild creatures in her profession when I began to write about the environment for a Florida newspaper. I always think of him when I drive around Wedgwood and see the martins' houses -- so many empty now that the caretakers of his generation are gone. I appreciate all Jim's lifetime contributions -- to his family, his friends and fellow craftsmen, his military service to our nation, and to his profession -- but also to the wild creatures that he and other mentors taught me to love. Bless you, Jim, and may heaven be full of donkeys, good doggies and purple martins.
