Menu
Search by Name
Search by Name
James Houston Obituary
James D. "Jim" Houston, internationally renowned author and a central figure on the Santa Cruz arts scene for more than four decades, passed away at his beloved East Cliff Drive home on Thursday, April 16, 2009, of complications resulting from cancer. He was 75.
Born in San Francisco, on November 10, 1933, to parents who had migrated to California from Texas, Houston spent his Depression-era childhood on the western edge of the city, next to the Pacific Ocean, and then moved with his family to the Santa Clara Valley in 1948.
During the early 1950s he attended San Jose State College, pursuing a degree in dramatic arts. It was there that he met his future bride, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and where he developed an extended network of friends that frequently visited Santa Cruz for surfing expeditions and beach parties. He also developed a love for the Hawaiian Islands during this era, and he and Jeanne were married in Honolulu in 1957.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force in England, he and Jeanne attended the Sorbonne in Paris, France and later toured Europe, before returning to California, where Jim pursued an M.A. in American Literature at Stanford University. He was awarded a Wallace Stegner Writing Fellowship in 1966 and studied with Wallace Stegner and Frank O'Connor.
In 1962, he and Jeanne relocated to Santa Cruz and moved into the former home of Patty Reed Lewis, with its fabled cupola overlooking Schwann Lagoon and Twin Lakes Beach. He was to live there for the rest of his life.
Jim published his first novel "Between Battles" in 1968 and his second, "Gig," the following year. In addition to his writing income, Jim supported his growing family of three children-Corinne, Joshua and Gabrielle-as a musician, teaching classical and folk guitar, and playing stand-up bass in local bars and nightclubs.
He also taught creative writing at Stanford and later at UC Santa Cruz. He was a Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii and University of Oregon, and received the Lurie Chair at San Jose State in 2006.
In 1973, he and Jeanne collaborated on the seminal nonfiction work, "Farewell to Manzanar," which chronicled Jeanne's childhood experiences in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the 20th century's 100 most important works of Western literature. They also wrote the screenplay for the film version of the book, which premiered worldwide on NBC and was nominated for an Emmy Award.
During the 1980s, Jim began an extensive film collaboration with master Hawaiian musician Eddie Kamae, resulting in eight documentary films on the legacy of indigenous Hawaiian music and a biography by Jim of Kamae entitled, "Hawaiian Son." Jim and Jeanne, along with their daughter Corinne, also brought the Pacific Film Festival to Santa Cruz during this period, and Jim served on the festival's advisory committee through its 20th Anniversary this past year.
Jim completed eight novels, most recently "Snow Mountain Passage" and "Bird of Another Heaven," and more than a dozen works of nonfiction, including "In the Ring of Fire" and "The Men in My Life," A collection of his essays on Santa Cruz and the Pacific Rim, "Where Light Takes Its Color from the Sea," was published last year.
Jim was the recipient of awards and honors too numerous to mention-two American Book Awards, a Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Fiction, The Carey McWilliams Award, and the Humanitas Prize, among them-but he was most proud of his wife and children, and happiest when he was surrounded by family and friends and good music. Like Mark Twain, he loved to appear at celebrations and festivities in his trademark white suit.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 52 years, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston; children Corinne, Joshua and Gabrielle, and their respective spouses Jeff Traugott, Gretchen Houston and John Neville; and sister Gloria Way.
Services will begin at 12:30pm, Saturday, April 25 at Chaminade, One Chaminade Lane, Santa Cruz, CA, 95065. Colorful or aloha attire encouraged.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, P.O. Box 1416, Nevada City, CA 95959 www.squawvalleywriters.org.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for James Houston
Elaine Lowell
November 9, 2017
Years and years ago I took guitar lessons from Mr. Houston in his wonderful home in Santa Cruz. Years later, while working at a non-profit foundation in the north state, I ran into him when he was visiting the foundation. After introducing myself he smiled that wonderful smile and asked me if I was still practicing. I immediately got the same butterflies in my stomach every 12 year old gets when queried by their instructor!He was a wonderful, wonderful writer, teacher and human being. I'll never forget him. Elaine Lowell
MaryMargaret Mills
July 21, 2009
F.Davis and I MaryMargaret Mills send our heart felt wishes to you and the family over your loss of James. We lived in Santa Cruz for many years and I have read most of your all's books.
Judi Brown
April 27, 2009
To Jeanne and family,
Ed and I were saddened to hear of Jim's death. What wonderful memories our family has of the beach, from the time our children were babies, Josh, Gabby and Julie and Stephen playing together, Jim and his ritual swim from Black Point to the harbor and back, your meditation classes on the beach, Jeanne; trading piano lessons for Cori while Jim taught me guitar. All wonderful memories of our time in the neighborhood with summer fun and all the neighbors there together.
We loved attending Jim's book reviews and book signings, and the last one we attended happened to be on our side of the bay, in Carmel. What fun to surprise him and enjoy yet another new book, "The Ring of Fire". Jim gave so much to so many. He will be greatly missed. Know that our thoughts and prayers are there with you.
Paul Douglass
April 27, 2009
It was my great pleasure to be on the program of the Peninsula Volunteers as an author with Jim three years ago. It was my first real chance to observe the kindness, gentility, slightly impish wit and depth of character under whose spell so many others had already fallen. He told his stories, answered questions, with the ease of the veteran, but so naturally deflected the limelight, and when I returned to our table after doing my amateur's stint, had nothing but kind things to say, and was truly interested in me and my journey. His own journey ended too soon; I am filled with sadness, both because he had more to do, and because he had to suffer, but as much because I will not have the chance to see him again. My consolation, which I hope is also Jeanne's and his family's, is the memory of having known him. It seems remarkable that he could have had such an impact on one who knew him but a little; how much more must that impact be on those who were fortunate enough to be close to him for years or a lifetime?
Lorna Ritter
April 25, 2009
to the family of James Houston. I read this morning in the Metro of the death of my most favorite author; I first came across his writings in THE LAST PARADISE which I consumed rapidly also telling a multitude of friends about it; thus followed a series of serendipitious events in which I was able to retro- find CONTINENTAL DRIFT assumed pre-cursor to the PARADISE BOOK then Snow Mtn Passage and on and on I did meet both he and Jean at the Capitola Book cafe a few yrs ago and again at the historical library one in Soquel....I was very saddened that this prolific mind was snuffed out with cancer a disease I too suffer from time to time ad nauseum...I truly send my condolences and will miss his writings a great contributor to the California Mystic and psyche...his writings were very transendent and detailed and scriptive....not ony educatioal and factual but enchanting...hauntingly so esp with his references to the San Andreas fault of which I grew up on as well... I identified with him and his history and saw alot of my own father in his descriptive narrative of the folks coming from the Heartland to California please know that he will be missed as a great contribuor and difference maker on the California scene I am with the family in spirit as they bid him soul into Heaven this Noon in Santa Cruz Sincerely Lorna Ritter native daughter too
John Yewell
April 24, 2009
FTI:
http://www.montereyherald.com/search/ci_12216963
Bryan Love
April 23, 2009
My neighbor, mentor, advisor, literary ideal, father/grandfather figure - a man I've looked up to for the 19 years I've known him. And a master craftsman as a writer with the sensibilities to transport his reader and to transcend the medium from time to time.
I was fairly devastated to learn of his death yesterday, when Mary Kay opened the Metro Santa Cruz. And I feel a substantial regret for not having connected with him more than our bumps on the road, passing one another on his recent "constitutionals" between his house and the beach. Nothing beyond what Jim called, "the stuff of life", could have been more worthy of my pursuit.
He is greatly missed. Reach out and say the things you want to say to the ones you want to say them to.
Les Brady
April 22, 2009
To the Houston family, my deepest sympathies. Jim was my professor during his Lurie Distinguished Writer-in-Residence time at SJSU. His style was masterful, insights flawless, humor disarming, and I will never forget his welcoming air. I am a better writer and a better person having had the chance to spend time as his student, and I will value this experience my entire life.
Micaela Youmans
April 22, 2009
James Houston was a wonderful teacher and an amazing person. I still feel blessed to have been a part of his Lurie class-- he made his students feel welcomed and appreciated; he discussed instead of lecturing, and the topics were always interesting.
Thank you, Professor Houston, for being in my life-- even if it was only for a semester.
James Beck
April 21, 2009
I had the pleasure of being a student in a course taught by James Houston - California Literature - at SJSU. I am also a teacher myself, so I was doubly taken with his easy, unhurried, intimate rapor with the students. He was able to hit again and again that teaching sweet spot where he became leader, participant, and listener simultaneously. I want to thank him for sharing himself with us at SJSU.
Persis Karim
April 21, 2009
Jim's warmth and generosity came through the hallways across to my office at SJSU when he was a Lurie Visiting Professor here two years ago. I had many warm conversations with him in which we talked politics, the war in Iraq, and immigrants in California. When I saw him again in 2008 at Squaw Valley he was warm and asked me to send him some writing.
Mostly, I remember that Jim was interested in everything. His humility and warmth touched many of our students at SJSU! Condolences to his family and the many friends who have been touched by him.
Kate
April 21, 2009
Jim was generous and present with everyone. He had an aura of kindness and a great sense of humor. He will be missed, and he lives on through his great writing and impact he made on so many lives.
Maria Gitin
April 21, 2009
My condolences to all family and friends. Jim has been a huge influence on my current project, a memoir of my experiences as a civil rights worker in 1965. I approached him one Sunday afternoon last year while we were both weight lifting at the gym and asked if I could ask him for some advice. He said he was done teaching in a formal way, but if I caught him there, I could ask away. As his health declined, he continued to do his workout, with longer and longer breaks sitting on one of the machines. He'd break into a big smile and ask, "How's it going?" To not impose on him, I saved one question for each Sunday over a period of many months. His answers helped me, may help others. His life and writing are a gift. May he rest in blessed memory.
Jim Houston's advice to me:
1. Start by deciding what story you want to tell
2. Stick to the emotional truth
3. You don’t have to stick to the chronology. Use facts as source and then riff on them.
4. Go there – travel, go back to the South and it will all come back to you
5. Remember you don’t have to keep everything. Write 3-4 pgs a day without editing.
6. To write a successful memoir, you must open some old wounds.
7. You don’t have to show this to anyone, write it for yourself, don’t think about an audience
8. Quiet all the critical voices, including your own
9. You have never done this before so you are naturally going to have to work hard and re-work many times. 4-5 drafts is not uncommon.
10. There is no real deadline, even though you want to finish this year
And Jim's most important advice of all: WRITE NOW. WORRY LATER.
Frank Picarella
April 20, 2009
Jeannie and family--My condolences to all. I am deeply saddened to hear of Jim's passing. I was a student of his in the
early 70's at UCSC. I hadn't seen him
recently, but whenever we met over the
years, he always had a kind, uplifting,
encouraging word to say. He will be missed, but never forgotten. Thanks for
everything Jim. And rest in peace.
April Goral
April 20, 2009
James will surely be missed. A kind hearted soul, generous and so prolific in expressing his thoughts and concerns. As the balance of your other half, these days must be difficult to endure, but know James touched so many lives and they reach out to you at this time.
With deepest sympathy,
Howard Wu
April 19, 2009
James healed me from the damage done by years of High School English teachers and their red pens allowing me to write in the pre-word processing age. He use to wake me before he played bass with his coffee house band play as I suffer from early evening narcolepsy. He even once let me into the crows nest to see the workings of a writer in progress.
I had moved from Santa Cruz ages ago after the quake, into the Owens Valley. His invisble influence must have stayed with me more than any other "teacher" I had at UCSC. Us, a bunch of Crownies science nerds! I once had a VW throw a rod in Truckee and went to great lenghts to recuse it home than see it canabalised for parts. I've attended pilgamages to Manzanar and danced to taiko drumming though I'm part chinese and identify as HAPA. We know have a National Monument with an interpretive center in the old gymnasium. History once buried here, now will never be forgotten. I read from the Hawaiian Pidgeon bible at literary readings. So when I got hint that he was coming to the Eastern Sierra to talk only to quickly learn that he was not well i was distressed. "I ought to send him a get well and get you butt over here card."
Weeks later in our independent bookstore coffeeshop I read his half page obituary in LATimes. "His name seems familar" says a lady next to me. I told her that he co-wrote Farewell to Manzanar. We just had lots of Manzanar related events this spring at the Inyo Arts Council for the Arts. I told another man there I heard he was ill. "Was it serious?" "Appparently so." He was embarassed, but I found it most humourous. I think James would have laugh, too.
I'm so hurt, he could not have read this while above ground. I should have tried. OK, Seventy-five is a good run, but I'm catching up too and times awasting. But he talk me writers are immortals. I suppose now I will have to read some of his books. That and write a few of my own.
Garrett Hongo
April 18, 2009
Auwe...
What sad, sad news. Jim was the most splendid of men I've met in this literary life and it was wonderful to be in his company, to read his work, always humane, richly imagined, lovely in the mind as verbal music. I have these ghosts in head, picturing Jim among the lasiandra bushes in Volcano, Hawai`i, him reading at Volcano House in front of the fireplace, his running alongside me from Punahou to the University late one night (no taxis!), swapping stories in Eugene over drinks with Terry Hummer and Chang-rae Lee.... He was one of "the men in my life," to quote Jim's own work. I'm going to miss him.
Malama pono,
Gary Shapiro
April 18, 2009
I was proud to have had James D. Houston as a teacher and a friend. He was kind to me many times. He was brilliant teacher, always prepared and fascinating. I drove him home from San Jose every week when he was my professor at SJSU, and I asked him millions of questions. He was twice a guest on my radio program. I asked Jim last year how he decided which genre to pursue, of the many he had worked in.
“As a matter of fact, you know, I don't think ahead of time like there's a genre that I should try, or that I -- if I'm really going to be an all-purpose versatile writer, I have to be able to do this also. I never thought that way. I mean the projects come to me that require a certain kind of approach, a certain form. I'm following my passion… I hear a story that kind of catches me, and I realize I have to tell it, or I want to tell it, and then I find a way to tell it, what's the best way to get at it… But I don't think ahead of time, in terms of genre. The material comes first, and then wherever the material needs to go, or I think it needs to go, that sort of shapes the form and structure.”
Karen
April 17, 2009
Onward and upward, my friend. Thank you so much for all that you gave to this world. Much aloha.
Jan Goggans
April 17, 2009
A light in the universe went dark yesterday. For all his formidable literary talent and teaching abilities, Jim's greatest gift to us was his smile, his laugh, his being. There is no one like him.
Kay Spencer
April 17, 2009
This is a sad day. Jim Houston believed in me when I was a beginning writer, and supported me to the fullest in my writing journey. There is hardly a greater gift one can give than the gift of believing in someone's dream. Jim did that for me and I will never forget it.
Joyce Harold
April 17, 2009
To Jeanne and other family -- Jim will be missed in our community and in our world at large. He captured history and fiction as few others can. One time, he generously donated an entire evening attending our book group as we discussed one of his early novels. Another time, at a book presentation in San Francisco, he kept several dozen people mesmerized as he spoke of the ties between Hawai'i and California at a Mechanics' Institute meeting...Generosity of spirit and community commitment...An amazing human being... Aloha...
michael bush
April 17, 2009
Thank you for pushing us to look beyond ourselves through your written word.
Karen Yamashita
April 17, 2009
Dear Jeannie and family:
Asako and I send our sincere regards and sympathy to you. You and Jim were the first in Santa Cruz to welcome me. I will always remember that special dinner with you and Jim and your continuing friendship and support over these years.
Love, kt
April 17, 2009
jim, you will be missed, and we will always remember the wonderful times we shared at the aloha island grille, and in the pool! our prayers are with you and your family...a hui hou...aloha... patrick & janis fullan
Showing 1 - 25 of 25 results
Make a Donation
in James Houston's name
Memorial Events
for James Houston
How to support James's loved ones
Honor a beloved veteran with a special tribute of ‘Taps’ at the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The nightly ceremony in Washington, D.C. will be dedicated in honor of your loved one on the day of your choosing.
Read more
Should I Send Sympathy Flowers?
What kind of arrangement is appropriate, where should you send it, and when should you send an alternative?
Read more
What Should I Write in a Sympathy Card?
We'll help you find the right words to comfort your family member or loved one during this difficult time.
Read moreResources to help you cope with loss
Estate Settlement Guide
If you’re in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist.
Read more
Obituaries, grief & privacy: Legacy’s news editor on NPR podcast
Legacy's Linnea Crowther discusses how families talk about causes of death in the obituaries they write.
Read more
The Five Stages of Grief
They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel.
Read moreWays to honor James Houston's life and legacy
Obituary Examples
You may find these well-written obituary examples helpful as you write about your own family.
Read more
Obituary Templates – Customizable Examples and Samples
These free blank templates make writing an obituary faster and easier.
Read more
How Do I Write a Eulogy?
Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love.
Read more
