Deceased July 4, 2022
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In Memory
Jim was born into an Army family, a tradition he followed and passed on. His father was quartermaster general for the Far East during the Korean War, so Jim started high school in Japan. At Amherst, Jim took his studies—but never himself—seriously. He ran cross-country and track, enjoyed making new friends and had fun. After NYU medical school and more studies at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt, Jim joined the Army.
While at NYU, he courted Connie, and after they married, she too—now a pediatric oncologist—joined the Army. They went from posting to posting, caring for soldiers and their families and raising their own three youngsters. One of them, Eleanor ’85, followed her parents into medicine and the Army.
Jim’s postings—Germany; Panama; Washington, D.C.; Augusta, Ga.; and Honolulu—increasingly drew on his skill as a physician, cardiologist, medical educator and administrator. Later, working from the 1,000-bed Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, he supervised all medical care provided by the Army throughout the Pacific. Retiring as a brigadier general, he performed the same role for Pacific region veterans for the Veterans Administration—simultaneously acting as chief of medicine at the University of Hawaii.
But Jim’s CV doesn’t reveal his compassionate and caring side—whether personally welcoming wounded soldiers returning to his stateside hospital or working to find solutions for homeless veterans. It also doesn’t reflect his exuberant joy in living, his love of music and his deep friendships with Amherst classmates that survived the years and miles of separation.
Jim died, suddenly and peacefully, on the Fourth of July. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, as are his mother, father, brother and son.
John Thompson ’57