Ashley James

ASHLEY JAMES (1967-2024)

Ashley James, 57, of Minneapolis passed away December 5, 2024 in a car accident in Craig, Colorado while traveling as a passenger to her husband's funeral.

Ashley was born December 1, 1967, in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Beverly Brewer James and Robert Leslie James. Because Ashley's father was in the Air Force, the family moved frequently, but much of her early childhood was spent in South Florida, the family's home. Her days were filled with trips to the beach and family get-togethers with her younger brother, Matthew, and their cousins Scott and Sean Carroll, James Lyle, and Kim and Kari James. When Ashley was 11, the family moved to Iowa City, Iowa, and 4 years later, to Fairbanks, Alaska, where she graduated from West Valley High School in 1985.

Ashley received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida in 1990. She then spent 3 years at Westinghouse in Orlando, Florida, performing thermodynamic analyses in power plants. She resumed her engineering studies with an emphasis on fluid dynamics at Georgia Tech, where she received her doctoral degree in 2000. While at Georgia Tech, she met her future husband, Darrell Gerber. The couple bonded over a shared love of science and rock music, and when Ashley received an appointment to teach at the University of Minnesota in 2000, they moved to Minneapolis together and married there in 2005.

Ashley taught at the University of Minnesota for seven years in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics. (Her friends would often tease her about being an actual rocket scientist.) In 2005, she received the National Science Foundation's Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which was conferred at the White House.

Eventually, Ashley decided to leave the academic world and shifted her career to the private sector where she worked for 18 years in developing custom research projects for businesses engaged in growth and innovation. It is a testament to her loyalty, intelligence, and capacity for working with all kinds of people that she was with the same company during that whole time, while the company itself went through multiple cycles of changes and turnover.

In her private life, Ashley loved traveling, camping and hiking, punk rock music, cats, friends and family, and above all, her beloved husband, Darrell Gerber. Those who knew them both well know that it's impossible to imagine Ashley without Darrell, or Darrell without Ashley. They were a perfectly matched couple, passionately committed to the environment, to social justice, and to music. Ashley was a quiet person and it was a pleasure to find the things that would open her up. She loved to talk about her music, the places she visited with Darrell, and even her challenges at work. She liked to challenge herself and decided, in adult life, to learn how to play the drums. This led to years of playing in bands with various groups of friends and always with her bass-playing husband. Curious about learning new things, Ashley took up Taiko drumming several years ago, and last year, her favorite Christmas gift was a jewelry-making class from Darrell.

Ashley was preceded in death by her husband, Darrell Gerber, her father, Robert James, and her father-in-law, Ervin Gerber. Ashley is survived by her mother, Beverly Brewer James, her step-father, Patrick Daley, her brother, Matthew James (Lorena), nephew, Andrew James, as well as many cousins, nieces, and nephews; and through her husband, by her mother-in-law, Arloa (Gentry) Gerber, brother-in-law, Wade Gerber (Tinneal), nephews Tyler Gerber (Corinne) and Kearn Gerber (fiancée Sierra), and grand-nephews Dawson Gerber and Harvey Gerber.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Ashley's memory can be made to Environmental Initiative (environmental-initiative.org).

A celebration of Ashley's life - together with her beloved husband Darrell's - will be held on December 14 at McNamara Alumni Center's Memorial Hall, 200 SE Oak St, Minneapolis, MN. Arrival: 1:00-1:30. Program: 1:30. Visitation and hors d'oeuvres to follow.