Dr. James Montgomery Meade was born September 23, 1938 to James Benjamin and Annette (Blitzstein) Meade in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. He passed away on May 10, 2023 after a five year battle with dementia. Jim was the oldest of two boys. He is survived by Elaine, the love of his life and his best friend of 62 ½ years, his two sons, J.B. and Sam, along with granddaughter, Elyse, grandsons Ben, Samuel and Jimi, daughters-in law, Mary Ann, Lorina and Kathy, and Kelli and Kourtney, to whom Jim was a special father and grandfather figure, respectively. He is preceded in death by his oldest son, Steven James, who passed away on January 16, 2023 after a brutal battle with cancer.
Jim was the son of a career Navy Chief Warrant Officer. As World War II loomed, Jim, his mother and younger brother moved from Pearl Harbor to Los Angeles. After the War the Meade family moved in with cousins Floyd and Marl Borough on a 100-acre homestead on Cheney Creek in Wilderville, Oregon, just outside of Grants Pass.
Living on Cheney Creek was a boy’s paradise. Jim grew up subsistence hunting, fishing and gold mining with his father and two uncles. On his 12 th birthday he was given cork boots so he could join in the family logging business where he became a skilled logger. Although his remarkable upbringing provided him with a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of subjects including geology, forestry, mining, biology, and poetry, he received his early formal education in a one room schoolhouse on Cheney Creek, complete with an outhouse. One of his best friends confirms that he was “not the best student,” but a very curious one. He went to junior and senior high school in the “big city” of Grants Pass, where he lettered in high school football. Jim graduated from high school, but was not interested in higher education at that point.
He enlisted in the United States Navy (his father tricked him by telling him he was going to be drafted), serving aboard the USS Washburn, among others, and traveled the world. Like his father and his two sons, Steve and Sam, he was an excellent sailor. After his honorable discharge, Jim returned to Grants Pass and continued his work as a logger. Although he loved the hard work and the life-style of a rough and tumble logger, he became increasingly aware what a dangerous profession it was, with many around him suffering accidents. At about the same time, Jim became reacquainted with Elaine Norris, the beautiful sister of a family friend. His relationship with Elaine, combined with his desire to change professions, inspired him to pursue further education and Jim set his sights on being the first one in his family to go to college.
In the fall of 1959, he enrolled at Oregon State University. He and Elaine were married on December 24, 1960 and began their life adventure together in Corvallis. As if transitioning from the life of a logger to a student was not hard enough, Jim and Elaine began one of life’s greatest adventures — parenting – when they welcomed Steven James into the world in April of 1962. Jim’s parents, J.B. and Annette Meade could not have been prouder of their son. In March of 1965, Jim received the devastating call that his father had passed away at the age of 54 from a heart attack. In the fall of 1965, Jim and Elaine welcomed their second son, J.B., and in the fall of 1967, they completed their family with son, Samuel Allen. Jim worked three jobs while obtaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from OSU, working in a log mill (pulling green chain), tending bar and working as an assistant in the OSU Geography Department.
Although academia was not a breeze for him (especially math and Spanish), his experience at OSU revealed that he was smarter than the world would have assumed about someone with a previously limited interest in academics. He dreamed of possibly being a professor. He was accepted into a PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Geography Department.
Life in North Carolina was rich in many ways. It enabled Elaine and family to reestablish a relationship with her father who lived in Boone, as well as incredible family on the Taylor side of Elaine’s family who lived in Greensboro and Winston Salem. The Meades were accepted by the Taylor’s love and generosity in life changing ways. Beyond sipping Timonade and catching fireflies in Aunt Lib and Uncle Frank’s back yard, they were embraced as family. Time at UNC not only produced a PhD in medical geography for Jim, but also minted five diehard Tarheel fans – before it was fashionable.
While completing his dissertation, Jim taught at Sir George University in Montreal, Canada for one year. He then accepted a position in Idaho Department of Health & Welfare in Boise researching ways to plan and manage the deployment of health care resources and facilities to provide for Idaho communities and to control health care costs. His pioneering research and work attempted to prevent the dramatic escalation in health care costs created by an arms race where every hospital in a community had to have the latest and greatest MRI/CT imaging, birthing center, cardiac unit, etc. He was appointed by Governor Andrus to the Center for Disease Control National Health Statistics. His research and advocacy in Idaho and before Congressional subcommittees attempted to control healthcare costs by sharing community resources. He also advocated with St. Als to build infrastructure to care for the aging of the baby boomer generation. The deregulation of the early 80s, however, ended that research and the healthcare arms race was on. Ultimately, toward the end of his life, market economics proved that an arms race was unsustainable and many hospital systems in Idaho and throughout the US now share and coordinate care.
Without a job and unwilling to leave Idaho to accept a teaching position at USC, he swallowed his pride, cleaned gutters and did odd jobs for a year hoping something would come along that fit with his education and training and which would keep his family home in Idaho. He was sustained during this period by his faith and by several family friends in the Boise area who knew he was in need and anonymously helped. Being “self-made” and one accustomed to providing help instead of receiving it made this time hard, but also rich because he knew he was in a community who loved and supported each other.
Nearing the end of his financial rope, he decided to venture beyond his field of direct expertise and accepted a position with John Hancock selling life insurance. His knowledge of statistics, his love of teaching and his ability to connect with others over estate planning, especially family farmers, quickly earned him national recognition within the company as one of John Hancock’s top salesmen. The private sector provided him with two things research had not – time and money. Suddenly, he had more of both. Traveling the State to meet with clients, he would throw in his fishing pole to cast a line on the way there or back. For a master fisherman, he was in heaven.
In 1978, he and Elaine purchased the shell of humble hunting cabin in Atlanta. Building the cabin in Atlanta allowed him, his boys, and grandchildren to experience some of what he had growing up on Cheney Creek where hunting, fishing, trips to the hot springs and card games over cigars were abundant. All three of his boys loved the cabin, but none more than Steve, who helped transform it into a humble mountain oasis with running water, power, internet and a supply of DVD’s that would make Blockbuster jealous. Jim invested in improving Atlanta by helping to establish a helipad for emergency response and helping the town acquire emergency response equipment.
Although a faith community was not part of his upbringing, he and Elaine found that in Cole Community Church in the 70s, 80s and early 90s and then splinter churches until they found a new Church home with Compass Treasure Valley. Inspired by the great people of faith at Cole, he studied the Bible with great zeal and began teaching adult Bible classes. Due to his knowledge and Jewish heritage, he was dubbed by some of his friends as “Rabbi.” He took great pride in drafting maps for two of his heroes, Claude and Barbara Leavitt, missionaries in Suriname who were translating the Bible into the Carib, dialect of Sarnami used by the members of the Wai-wai tribe the Leavitt’s served.
During his time working for the State of Idaho, Jim also served as an adjunct professor of statistics at Boise State, both because he was passionate about teaching and because he received a discount on Broncos tickets.
More important to him than his academic or professional accomplishments, he was an amazing husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather and a loyal friend to many. He had a special relationship with his five grandchildren and was enormously proud of the fact he convinced his three grandsons that fishing in Craig, Alaska was as near to heaven on earth as one could get. Over the 62 years of their marriage, Jim and Elaine carried on the great tradition of his Aunt Madeline by adopting into their home and lives several people who needed a home or a grandparent. Jim and Elaine were both active supporters of Young Life and Idaho Mountain Ministries.
Sadly, dementia crept into his life about five years ago and progressed slowly over time. Elaine worked hard to keep him in the family home as long as she could. Steve and Mary Ann continued to take him to the cabin frequently to give Elaine a break and to let “Big Jim” relax and relive a lifetime of memories in the cozy mountain home he started.
When Steve was diagnosed with cancer in early 2020, he did not tell his father of his disease because as loving son, he did not want to worry him. Even as Steve endured grueling chemotherapy and received bad news after bad news about the progression of his cancer, he was a frequent visitor spending time with his Dad at Veranda’s Memory Care to let him smoke a cigar, play cards, enjoy country music or just trade fishing stories. In late December of 2022, when Steve was told he had six months to live, he told Mary Ann he was glad he was likely going first so he could be other side to welcome his Dad home. Steve’s battle with cancer ended on January 16 th . As Jim passed on May 10 th surrounded by the love of his life, his two sons and daughters-in law Mary Ann and Lorina, the family took comfort knowing Steve was waiting for his Dad with the cards shuffled, the fire stoked and hopefully better cigars than the Swisher Sweets Jim preferred on earth.
Jim’s life will be celebrated by family and friends on Thursday, June 29 th at 2 pm at Living Hope Bible Church. Jim’s celebration of life service will also be livestreamed. For livestreaming instructions, please email jb@favros.com .