David A. Howe Library on May 16th at 6pm in Monday Club Room
Jim was born and raised right here in Wellsville. As the son a of father who was an artist and a mother with English and Library Science degrees from Alfred University, Jim virtually grew up in the David A. Howe Library. If any of you knew him during high school, you will remember that he was deeply interested in science and photography.
Following high school graduation in 1960, Jim joined the Navy to get an education in electronics. After Fire Control Technician A and C schools at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, he served for three years aboard the USS William V. Pratt (DLG-13), a guided missile destroyer. His primary work there involved operation and maintenance of the Terrier missile guidance radars. His ship was part of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis naval blockade.
After honorable discharge from the Navy in 1964, Jim enrolled at Thiel College, (pronounced tēēl), a small liberal arts college in Greenville, Pennsylvania. In June 1968 he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics.
On graduation from Thiel, Jim was hired by the Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis in the Missile Guidance Branch.
For the next 20 years, most of his work was in developing an electro-optical missile guidance system known as DSMAC (pronounced D-smack) that ultimately be-came part of the guidance system for the Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile. In 1981, Jim and two other men at the Center were honored for their invention of that system.
Jim left the Naval Avionics Center in 1988 to take up a second career at Wolf Technical Services, Inc., a forensics and design engineering firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the next 36 years, he analyzed personal injury and property damage accidents that involved optics, lighting, and visibility. When asked what he did at Wolf, Jim often told people, “I play in traffic in the dark.”
In 2007, Jim formed Clearly Visible Presentations, LLC to provide instruction in optics, lighting, and visibility to others in the forensic engineering field. His teaching activities now take him all over the country.
Jim often returns to Wellsville and while here always visits the library and, of course, the Texas Hot.
