Early impressions of Jim:

From Susan: Jimmy was what we called him. As a kid, he was a free spirit. He and Billy O’Neil often got themselves in trouble (by 1950's standards). Such as: spying on couples in Lovers Lane and getting caught by the police, and smoking in the garage. Soon there was talk of boarding school and Jimmy was off to Williston Academy.

From Mark: A spirit for competition and the love of our children brought Jim and me together 30 years ago. Jim was always a student of the game, master of the rules and strategies, and never satisfied with anything less than 1st place and the championship. We built a team that won many tournaments and two state championships. Jim’s drive to win and his quest for ever-increasing levels of competition brought us to tournaments throughout the Northeast and to Canada.
We spent most long holiday weekends at tournaments, exchanging team patches and bringing home the trophies from our countless victories. I am certain that there were weeks when we spent as many (or more) hours devoted to Blue Thunder soccer as we spent in our offices.

From Peter: The first thing I learned about Jim was that the more fundamental his questions were about a subject, the more he knew about it and was only asking to find out what you knew.

From Peter: Being a dental patient of Jim’s. After being his patient for a few years, I could tell that he took his practice very seriously. He had a soft touch as a dentist and a practical approach to dental care.

Words to describe Jim:

From Danielle: Passionate, Disciplined, Loyal

From Ed: As a young a father, he was “passionate, intense and full of lessons”. As an older father and grandfather, he is “mellow, understanding and still full of lessons.”

From Gerry: Curious, Purposeful, Organized

Advice from Jim:

From Ed: Many times after really bad news or a tough day, Dad would say, “The sun will come up tomorrow, and it will seem better”. And he was right: not only did it seem better, but hearing him tell me that it would be alright made it better in and of itself. It seems simple, but it always worked.

From Jenn: Push yourself to be better. Whenever I got to be one of the better soccer players on the team, he would make me try out for a harder team, or have our team enter a more difficult tournament. I remember him saying, “The goal is to be the worst player on the best team.” I guess that is a recipe for improvement. Not always fun, but boy did I learn a lot.