Our parents were generous, caring people who were passionate about aiding the less fortunate. They were strong believers in fostering education because they had a boundless curiosity about the world they lived in and a wanderlust to go with it.

 

Jim and Betty were married in 1950 and over the following 60 plus years saw their children give them thirty-one grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.

 

Jim was born in a small Midwestern town on the Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska border called Wray. His father Frank and his mother Dorothy traveled there by covered wagon and acquired the original acres of sand hills that would eventually become the Wilson Ranch that still operates today. The first house was built of sod. He was the oldest of 8 children who helped their mom and dad carve a living out of a harsh landscape.  After high school he left the ranch to make money to go to college, working some mind numbing jobs in factories but had his journey to higher education interrupted by a world war. 

 

He was assigned to learn to fly the B-17 flying fortress. He was sent to England to a base at Deopham Green and flew 37 combat missions across the English Channel. He received a European Theater medal with 5 battle stars, a WW2 Victory Medal with 5 oak leaf clusters, a Purple Heart and a couple of Distinguished Flying Crosses. He achieved the rank of Major at 26 years old and after VE Day he stayed in and ferried airplanes wherever the Air Force asked him to. He saw large parts of the globe which increased his desire to travel. He returned to Colorado, enrolled in the Electrical Engineering program at Colorado University and got his degree with honors but he never lost his love of flying so when a job with a fledgling airline (United) opened up, he took it. 

 

Betty was born in Baltimore MD, moved to Los Angeles as a child and grew up a city girl. She loved music, dancing and roses. Raised primarily by her mother after a divorce, she graduated high school and went to UCLA for her undergraduate degree. She became a stewardess for United after college so she could travel and as a substitute on a blind date met Jim. 

 

They were married and had 7 boys and 2 girls.

 

Betty kept the family organized better than any General could have. She made sure homework was done, rooms were organized and differences were resolved fairly.

 

Jim and Betty fed, clothed and housed 9 children and Betty’s mom. They paid for 9 college educations. Somehow they managed to travel somewhere once or twice per year either alone or with a few of the kids. They visited every continent on the planet.  Like Johnny Cash they could say “I’ve been everywhere.” 

 

After a retirement move from New Jersey to Florida, Jim and Betty traveled extensively but when home, worked every Thursday at the St. Vincent DePaul Soup Kitchen.  He cooked and she managed the crowds.  Betty passed away in 2011 and from that time till his death in 2018, Jim devoted himself to family and his community. The world is a little worse for Heaven’s gain.