Deceased December 23, 2009
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In Memory
Jim Cochrane died in December 2009 in Waynesville, N.C. He came to Amherst from Rochester, where he was born and attended school, in the fall of 1943. Because, by then, most students had departed for military service, with only about 100 civilians left at the college, and because I was also from Rochester, we became friends. I helped recruit him as a member of Chi Psi, and we roomed together briefly that fall in the Lodge (now Mayo-Smith house).
Jim and I both joined the navy that winter, he to become an officer and I as an enlisted man. After the war, he returned to Amherst in 1947 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. Although technically a member of the Class of 1947, he affiliated with the Class of 1946 and was active in class affairs, attending a number of reunions and serving as vice president at the time of his death.
After Amherst, Jim attended Yale Law School, was chosen for the law journal board and worked briefly in one of the largest and most prestigious New York firms. But most of his legal career was spent with his hometown company, Eastman Kodak, where he rose to become associate chief counsel and secretary of the chemicals division, based in Kingsport, Tenn. He and his wife, Jill, were active in community affairs there and after retirement to Charleston and then Dewees Island, S.C. Jim also wrote two books of local history, one about the Kingsport public library and the other about DeweesIsland.
Jill and Jim were always lively additions to our reunions, especially in extolling the virtues of the Charleston area. We will all miss him at our 65th and send our sympathy and support to Jill and their family.
Jack Thompson ’46