This is part of a letter Jim wrote in 1998 for his class of 1948 school reunion.

During the summer of 1945-46, I worked at Squaw Mountain Inn mowing the golf course and raising chickens.

In the summer of 1947 and winter of 1948 I worked at the Atlas Plywood Plant in Greenville. The summer of 1948 I worked on No. 4 mountain lookout station for the Maine Forest Service.

Fall and winter of 1948-49 I attended Higgins Classical Institute with a heavy class schedule and graduated in June 1949. I then went back to the forest service and spent summer and fall on Wadleigh Mountain lookout station which is located up in the remote area beyond Kokadjo. I worked late into the fall of 1949 for the ranger in the Chesuncook Lake area.

The winter of 1949-50 Oscar Gagnonand I bought one of Dick Folsom's bush planes and trapped beaver, mink, weasel and fisher.

The forest service gave me a job as patrolman and a new jeep in the summer of 1950. The year before I had used my jeep moving crews into remote areas to prove out the concept. I also flew supplies and equipment to fire crews with the float plane. The fun was over.

In November of 1950 I entered the Army 11th Airborne Division with the hopes of liaison flying. I did fly, but in C-119's. One way trips with a parachute strapped on my back. I attended several schools while in the service. Jump school at Fort Benning, Quartermaster school at Ft. Lee, Virginia. I married an Army Wac from Glendora, California. The remainder of the service was spent at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky in the parachute packing and aerial delivery training. My first son, Jeff, joined the family here. I separated from the service in 1953 and we moved to Glendora where I started work for Lockheed in the Flight operations Department as a Flight Equipment Specialist.

In 1956 1 transferred to Coleman Engineering Company at their rocket track test site in Hurricane, Utah. We tested parachutes, rockets, and pilot escape systems. . These tests used dummies in the ejection seats and capsules. My second son Scott was born here.

After several years, we moved back to Glendora and I went to work for Sierra Engineering and Space Recovery Systems as a project engineer designing and testing crash test dummies, helmets, and oxygen valves, and breathing devices for air crews. My third son Andy joined the family.

A privately owned parachute design company invited me to join them as a design engineer. I was awarded six patents in the field of aviation safety. Then in 1973 I founded Speciality Design - my own parachute company.

After nine years of seven day work weeks, I sold the company and returned to Paranetics. Next, FXC Corporation needed someone to head their engineering department and asked me to join their company. I retired in March, 1998 and I'm now semi-retired doing engineering design work at home so I can enjoy fishing once in a while.

My love of flying never slowed down. Over the years I've owned several planes including a Decathlon, an aerobatics dream. When my present wife, Mary Ann, got her flying certificate, we acquired a share in a six-seater Cherokee. We flew with a group of friends all over the Southwest. When one of the partners had a hard landing and struck the prop, the insurance company totaled the plane. With our share we purchased a Chevy Van and now fly lower than we used to fly.

My family started at Fort Campbell, Kentucky where Jeffrey was born in August of 1953. He is married to Cheryl, a nurse, and they have a son , Josh, and a daughter, Whitney. Jeff is part of Edward Air Force Base rescue division for the B-2 program. Jeff was awarded the Metal of Valor for his action at a crash scene as captain of his group.

Scott was born in St. George, Utah in 1958 while I was working at Hurricane. He works for Azusa Pacific University. As a photographer he has served on several missions for his church in Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala. Being single he is able to travel more.

Andy was born in 1962 here in Glendora and married Leslie in 1987. Andy worked for a concrete company and Leslie worked for Von's. They had two children, Matthew and Megan. Andy always wanted to be a policeman and graduated from the police academy. Just prior to going to work for a local police department in 1993, he was fatally burned at a construction site where he was cutting concrete.

Mary Ann and I were married in 1988. She decided to fly too, and became a proficient pilot and together, we shared many flying adventures. Now we are both inactive in flying. She retired from teaching in 1993 when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

I still have a lot of Maine in my blood. At one time I had 11 pine trees in my back yard. All of them started from seeds.