Jim grew up in a Navy family on the East Coast and West Coast, and attended high
school in Hawaii. After graduating from Notre Dame with Bachelor’s and Master’s
Degrees in Aerospace Engineering, he embarked on a 20 year Navy career, flying
Intruders and Tomcats and teaching Naval ROTC at his alma mater. On watch in the
NORAD Command Center for the events of 9/11, he retired from the Navy the following
year and accepted an Air Force civilian position with NORAD and U.S. Northern
Command, and he will soon reach 20 years in that service as well!

Jim has felt a strong calling from Christ to serve each of the new generations, such as
reading to young children and training teens at the St. Gabriel Sound Board. For the
last 8 years he has been a Community Judge for junior high and high school speech
and debate, judged at science fairs, and served as a Mock Trial Juror. He looks forward
this year to teaching U.S. History—as it turns out, he calculated he has already lived
through the last one fourth of the entire existence of the United States!

Jim and his wife Karen have 6 grown children and are the proud grandparents of 7 more
children. He enjoys 4wheeling, Scrabble, crosswords, and even stunt kite flying.