Jim was a great man. Was and is and will always be a great man. He wasn’t a perfect man… but on that token whenever he’d finish one of his rants and I’d look at him with my eyebrows raised and say, “Jim, I’m a flaming liberal.” He’d say, “no one’s perfect.” And hug me.
I was a single mom in the height of the recession, and after, I suffered from a severe and deeply rooted case of imposter syndrome. And he almost single handedly cured me of it.
Jim convinced me that what I thought and said mattered, it was important, it was valuable, and that it deserved to be heard. Not just by him, but by those CEO’s and Directors, and federal representatives that I encountered. I was never an assistant… I was a valuable resource for good.
I found my voice thanks to Jim. I found my passion for people, for work, and for others find work, thanks to Jim. And I found a way to balance that with my identity as a mother.
I watched his early morning grand baby meetings on our much loved road trips. I knew his first question to me every morning at 7:30am (because Jim’s days always started earlier always than my official start time at work) was, “How’s your baby?” And I knew that my answer to that question MATTERED.
My favorite way to start every day was coffee at home before work chatting with Jim.
I’m only one… of so many more, hundreds, perhaps thousands, because I watched over years, how many people he knew, cared for, worked with, encouraged, influenced, that owe so much to this man.
Jim changed my life for the better. He made me a better colleague, community advocate, mother and human. And I know he did the same for everyone else that knew him.
Those ripples of influence will never end, because of the thought, the care, the work, he put into those relationships. And the world is a better place because Jim was in it.
