My brother Jim died in Perth, Australia August 8th, 2008. Jim's two daughters Alexa & Jordana, as well as his wife Marg, were present when he died in hospital of a sudden onset of lung cancer. He was ill only about a month before he passed away. He will be buried August 15th in Fremantle, Australia.
Jim is survived by his mother, Angela, aged 90, and three brothers and a sister. His two daughters live in the US.
Jim was fluent in Mandarin Chinese, could read over 1000 characters, and spoke Bahasa Malay fluently. He also spoke some Vietnamese & Tagalog. At the time he fell ill, he was head of a USAID project in Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra, helping the city hit by a tsunami in 2004 rebuild from the disaster. He had lived and worked in and traveled extensively for thirty years as a Development Advisor and Senior Project Director through many countries in the Far East, from Bangladesh & the back country of China to Indonesia & the Philippines. He had also worked in Africa. He & I visited each other in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao back in the day and he was a joint US/Australian citizen.
Jim was a wonderful human being, a free spirit who travelled widely and was a true adventurer who actually discovered a new species of bird in Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea. He lived with a primitive tribe called Sea Dyaks in Borneo among his other adventures. Only last December did he try to make an ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Jim had an active roving intelligence and a sanguine, yet realistic outlook on life. He was a warm & loving person who will be sorely missed by all who knew him well.
I ask for your thoughts and prayers for Jim on the day of his internment.
you will be in our thoughts and prayers.