Deceased August 17, 2012

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50th Reunion Book Entry

In Memory

Our father, Dr. James L. Tucker, pediatrician, passed away more than one year ago, on Friday night, Aug. 17, 2012, having held and carefully examined his newborn 10th great-grandchild, Henry—an interested physician to the end. He outlived his wife, Betty, and son Gary by a decade.

My brother John read an Emily Dickenson poem at his service: “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers.” Our father’s classmates should know that he had crude large purple A’s hanging from his wall, remaining from the last Amherst vs. Williams game. We placed one on his chest when he passed. He was 93 and very interesting, intelligent and thirsting for knowledge. My siblings—Karen, John ’71, Richard and Gary—and I were so lucky to have had such a radiant father.

James L. Tucker Jr. ’68 

50th Reunion

Sidestepping the big conflict by attending medical school in New York City, I finally got to see the world in 1946- Germany, and not a pretty sight. As a medical officer with a rudimentary background in
Pediatrics, I was "selected" to safely deliver French war brides and their infants from Paris to Bremerhaven on their way stateside.

I married Betty Coffey four months after graduation, and the day after my first anatomy exam.Thanks to her, my seven year stint in New York City was possible. And thanks to her, we have five children and nine grandchildren. Two boys, Jim and John, tried Amherst, but graduated from the University of Washington. No lock-step through school there! Jim now is a science teacher at the
Lakeside School, and John is a physicist and engineer at Unisys in St. Paul. I emphasize physics because of my difficulties with that class at 7:50 a.m. senior year. I started my practice of Pediatrics in Seattle in 1950, and have been in the same building ever since. Does that mean perseverance, or lack of imagination and
timidity? I have enjoyed dealing with young families and their children. Learning disabilities have been of special interest in the last 25 years. Betty and I helped create the Puget Sound Branch of the Orton Dyslexia Society in 1970, and she, my son Jim, and two daughters-in-law have ended up teaching or tutoring dyslectics.

I have had the pleasure of working with Walter Rodgers in establishing a school for dyslectic grade schoolers in Seattle. This has given Betty and me a chance to see a bit of Lynn and Walt. Betty and I have enjoyed travel in the 80's, particularly England and Ireland. I kept looking for Joe Kelly in the pubs and links in Ireland, but no luck. Retirement looms in about five years if all our bills are paid and I can move in with one of our kids.