James Holmes

I remember Mr. Holmes so much as he was our across the street neighbor in Lake Oswego. When they moved in we found that their son was my age, and their daughter was my youngest sister's age. We had a lot of fun in our youth, and Mr. Jim Holmes taught me how to pole vault in their back yard, but I was no good. His son "Jimmy" (aka Erick now) and I would explore in the woods with our other friends and had a delightful upbringing on Wembley Park Rd. I wish the family such grace and condolences...

Jim hired me at Area 1 of Portland Public Schools in 1976 as community school coordinator. He could not have been a better boss. Very soon after I started Jim proposed that we go downtown to the Park Bureau because we'd discovered that four Park Bureau employees working in our schools were doing very similar work to our five district-sponsored coodinators. Thus began the very successful partnership between the district and the park bureau, and Jim started it all. He taught me so much, and...