James "Jim" Lawrence

James "Jim" Lawrence
08/07/1933 - 03/03/2024
Born in New York, New York, upon his father's death, Jim, as he was known to most friends and family, moved to Dillon, South Carolina. Here, Jim, understandably, developed a voracious appetite for reading as his mother served as the local librarian. Growing up in a single-parent household during the Depression, he worked many jobs in his youth, including driving trucks for the lumber industry. Yet Jim still graduated as a salutatorian from Dillon High School. In his early youth, growing up near the Little Pee Dee River, he developed a keen love of the outdoors, hunting, and fishing. He attended North Carolina State University, earning a bachelor's degree in three years in the newly developing field of Nuclear Engineering in 1955.
During college, he met Mary Ann Braswell, his faithful and loving companion, and they married in the summer of 1957. Jim went to work for Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, developing groundbreaking designs for the US Navy. But after a few years, his attention was drawn by the burgeoning space industry, and he went to work for NASA, where he would work for the next thirty-five years until retirement, doing instrumental work in computer simulation and design for the Apollo and Shuttle programs.
In 1960, Mary Ann and Jim moved to Houston, Texas, and soon settled in Friendswood, where Jim would work at the newly established Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake. Here, Jim and Mary Ann would raise their family of three boys. They were members of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, where he served in many leadership roles, including Jr Warden. Into retirement, Jim honed his love of gardening and singing in choirs. In particular, he committed much time to the choir at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church and the volunteer choral group Sine Nomine. He and Mary Ann traveled the world and Jim claimed to have read the entire fiction section of the Friendswood Public Library.
Jim is survived by Mary Ann, wife of 66 years, his sons David, Victor and wife Carolyn, and Dean and wife Sarah; four grandchildren, Brittany and husband Nathan, Jordan, Nathan, and Emeline; and a great-grandson, Jackson. Jim was preceded in death by his father, Harold Lawrence, his mother, Maud Beatty, and his brother, Harold Lawrence.
A memorial service will be held on Monday, March 11, 2024 at 1:30pm at Trinity Episcopal Church in Shepherdstown, WV.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to The Friendswood Public Library, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, Friendswood, Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, Houston, TX, or Blue Ridge Hospice of Virginia.