James and I became friends in the fall of 1975 when we were dorm mates at UC Santa Barbara. We were probably paired up because we were both mechanical engineering majors. We lived together our first two years in the Anacapa dorm and were part of a great group of guys that bonded together.
James was a great guy to hang out with. He was kind of quiet, but opened up when he was around our group. He was very observant of what was going on and would make witty and funny comments. Everybody liked James.
At college he really studied hard and did not hesitate to visit the professors and TA's to fully understand the subjects. Each year in our regular exchange of Christmas letters, he would tell me about his work at Endevco (and the many other permutations of the company) and the pride he had for the products he worked on and their significance. His engineering excellence really added value to the products and contributed to their lasting impact. I can just imagine that he was a valued member of the Endevco team, and I love seeing the pictures of him with his work colleagues.
I really looked forward to our letters at Christmas time where we would catch each other up, and share what we knew about the other UCSB'ers. He was the one that was most connected to all of us and we really appreciated that. I’ll always remember the good times we had together and our enduring friendship.