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Jim died September 15, 1993 in Santa Barbara, CA of a brain aneurysm and is buried at Ft Snelling Cemetary, Minneapolis, MN. He was married and had no children. He graduated from SDSU as an electrical engineer and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force. He was assigned to Vandenberg AFB, spent 4 years and left with the rank of Captain. Jim worked for an electronics firm named Applied Magnetics as an engineer of widgets and at the time of his death was in charge of their sales department.
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Harley Middleton
Jim died of a brain aneurysm in Goleta/Santa Barbara, California. He was married and had no children. Jim was my best friend through high school and we were college roommates as freshmen at SDSU. Jim graduated as an electrical engineer (math was simple for him) and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force. He was assigned to Vandenberg AFB, spent four yearsand left with the rank of captain. Jim worked for an electronics firm named Applied Magnetics as an engineer of widgets and at the time of his death was in charge of their sales department where he made more money selling widgets. Jim's dad worked for the Corp of Engineers and his mom was a stay at home mother. Her German accent was very pronounced. Jim's family never owned a car so his mom walked to the store daily to buy the family's meals for the day. I lived next door to Jim when I was in the 2nd grade and also next door to Virginia Kerr at the same time. As we grew and passed from McKinley to Junior High, Jim and I spent hours and more hours shooting basketball. I never saw a more accurate shooter than Jim and it always surprised me why he never went out for the team. Jim was skinny but very strong and could have held up against most big men. Jim's pride and joy was his 1954 Mercury; I have to admit it was sharp. Jim was especially careful of his stylish hub caps and took the time to remove them every time we were out and about and parked the car for a movie, whatever. One night after we graduated (Jim and I were 17), Jim, Tuck Pool, Dallas Urquhart and I were out drinking and of course Jim had parked his car and removed those precious hub caps. Jim went south on us and we dropped him at his car and threw him into his back seat. It was a cold fall night and when we returned a few hours later, we found Jim snug in that back seat covered nicely with those hub caps for warmth. We laughed about that for years to come. I was able to spend some time with Jim when my wife/children and I were stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in the late 70's and late 80's. The last time I talked with Jim was in 1992 shortly after I retired from the Air Force. I remember Jim as an honest, loyal and great friend.