James Weldon Pinholster

PINHOLSTER, JAMES WELDON, 45, of Louisville passed away on Saturday, December 18, 2010.

He was a native of Centreville, VA. A graduate of the University of Kentucky School of Architecture in 1992, Jim was an architect with Luckett and Farley Architects and Engineers and a member of St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church.

When Jim was six years old, he found his mother crying in bed. She had just learned she needed surgery on her back. Noticing her distress, Jim left the room returning minutes later with a handful of white and yellow field daisies. This instinct for the feeling and comfort of others characterized Jim's life. He adored his wife, Christy, and his son, Dillon, he kept his word and he thought carefully about everything he did.

As he often remarked, he was "all about process" and paid deep, serious attention to the things he valued his family, his friends and his work. He kept his needs very simple, but loved imported beer, running at Seneca Park, great design, building campfires, making furniture, woodworking, snow skiing, Dillon's soccer games, a great cup of coffee, "piddling" and taking Emmy -the Great Dane- on walks.

Jim had a dry and caustic wit which was disarming to some and endearing to those who loved him. He also had an unparalleled spontaneity for off-the-wall tricks one day, riding in a car with Christy, who was driving, and his sister-in-law, Kathy, also seated upfront, Jim decided to shock them. At some point, the girls turned around only to discover an empty backseat, with Jim gone. They were almost hysterical, when all of a sudden Jim popped out from the "trunk" where he'd somehow managed to climb from the back. Toward the end of his life, Jim was sitting in his chair by the fire when he said he smelled something smoky. Christy responded that someone had started to cook and Jim piped up, "well, it must be your mother." Jim had a rugged and adventurous side that was an equal match to his gentle spirit he spent summers roofing in Virginia in his 20s, he studied architecture in Venice, Italy, traveled to South America and enjoyed white-water rafting trips.

He was an admired and respected architect at Luckett and Farley for 15 years, where he was proud of his work on the redesign of Churchill Downs. He was a natural leader due to his calm, patient and caring disposition and he was a talented artist, leaving his mark both locally and nationally in the buildings he created.

He leaves behind a family who loved him deeply and will miss him daily - a family proud beyond words not only of the man he was, but of the fight he gave against an aggressive cancer with a prognosis he outlived by many months, never surrendering his strength or his dignity. You will remain in our hearts forever: Christy, Dillon, Elaine, the late Jim Sr., Michael, Janet, Michell, Dudley, Katherine, Val, Greta, John David, Katie, Anna, Ellen, Joyce, Julie, Jocelyn and many true and dear friends.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at St. Louis Betrand Catholic Church, 1104 S. Sixth St., with burial in the Elk Creek Cemetery, Taylorsville, KY. Visitation will be from 1-8 p.m. Monday at Pearson's, 149 Breckenridge Lane.

In lieu of flowers, the family is setting up a scholarship fund through the University of Kentucky College of Architecture.