James William "Jim" Louttit Sr.

James (Jim) William Louttit, Sr. died peacefully surrounded by loved ones on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, in Winter Park, Florida. He was 79 years old.

On February 11, 1946, James (Jim) William Louttit was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, the youngest child of the Rt. Rev. Henry Irving Louttit, Sr. and Amy Cleckler Louttit. As a young man, he attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, then Hobart College in Geneva, New York, graduating with his B.A. in biology in 1968. It was during his time at Hobart that Jim met Jane Hube, a student at nearby Wells College, when the two were set up- with other people- on a blind double date. Jim's father, Bishop Louttit, married them in 1969, in Farmington, Connecticut.

Jim's commitment to serving others began early; he grew up knowing that he wanted to be a doctor. In 1972, he graduated from the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee and, following a residency in family medicine at Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach, moved back home to the Orlando area in 1975 with Jane and their newborn daughter, Lisa. Later that year, he established Maitland Family Practice, joined by Dr. Eddie Waldheim Jr. in 1985 and Dr. Tim Pursley in 1996. Jim cultivated a relationship with each patient, not only because he knew it would improve the care he could provide, but also because he was genuinely interested in hearing about their lives. This approach led to many lifelong patients who trusted him in moments of profound joy and wrenching loss. He had a keen sense of justice and understood medical care as a long-term commitment to each person and their family, and often saw patients over the whole of their lifetimes. He became board-certified in geriatrics and advocated passionately for palliative care, serving as the Acting Medical Director for Hospice of Central Florida from 1979 to 1981. One of Jim's favorite experiences was mentoring students from the Florida State University College of Medicine, Orlando Campus, as a Clinical Assistant Professor from 2003 to 2015.

Jim's commitment to serving others continued after he retired from Maitland Family Practice in 2015, when he followed a second calling to be ordained in the Episcopal church. He enrolled in the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he relished the academic challenges, bicycling around campus, and the strong relationships he made while following in the footsteps of his father and older brother Henry, both of whom were ministers in the Episcopal church with strong ties to the university. He was ordained to the deaconate in early 2018 and graduated with a Master of Divinity later that year.

Jim's eagerness to learn and curiosity about the world was clear to all who met him. He read voraciously about wildlife, religious history, and anything he could find about the Orkney Islands in Scotland, where his father's family lived until the early 1850s (and the origin of his unusual last name). He shared this curiosity with his brother, and the two of them traveled throughout Europe with their wives, Jane and Jan, visiting countless churches and museums. Other trips found Jim incorporating his love of bicycling on tours of the countryside with Jane, his partner in adventure for over 56 years. Together they jumped off waterfalls in Belize, looked for bat caves (unsuccessfully) in the Cayman Islands, clung to a whitewater raft in the Grand Canyon, and navigated lochs in Scotland and canal locks in France.

Despite leaving for school and marrying a Yankee, Jim wanted to return to Florida. His love of exploring woods, wetlands, and waters began as a boy in Winter Park, when he and childhood friends from his neighborhood would boat and water ski barefoot on Lake Virginia. After Lisa and Jay were born, he shared his love of the water with them, canoeing, windsurfing, and enlisting them, along with other family and friends, as the unqualified crew of the Orkney Viking, his trimaran sailboat. Although the misadventures are now family lore, being on the water also meant encountering curious manatees and pods of dolphins and sailing in the dark through swirling bioluminescence. He cherished these moments even more because he shared them with the people he loved.

Along with the many people whose lives he touched, Jim is survived by his beloved wife, Jane, "woofy" Jib, and two children: Lisa Louttit (Jared Van Jaardsveldt) from Perth, Western Australia and James (Jay) William Louttit Jr. (Margaret) from Rome, Georgia; and three grandchildren: James William (William) Louttit III and Lucy Louttit from Rome, Georgia, and Amy Joy Van Jaardsveldt from Perth, Western Australia.

The memorial service will be held at 11 am on Tuesday, October 14th, at St. Richard's Episcopal Church in Winter Park, Florida, which has been the family's church for many years. The service will also be available to stream here.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable donations be made to one of the following organizations, which support causes near to Jim's heart:

The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida, which focuses on the rescue, medical treatment, rehabilitation, and release of Florida's raptors. Donations can be made online or mailed via check to: Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, 1101 Audubon Way, Maitland, FL 32751. The family requests that you please specify your donation as made in memory of Jim Louttit in your check memo line or by selecting the box indicating your donation is in honor of someone on the website.

Or

Episcopal Relief and Development's work with the Episcopal Diocese of West Jerusalem, which is supporting al Ahli Hospital in Gaza and working with the Jewish humanitarian group HIAS to provide psychosocial support in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel. Donations can be made online by adding "Middle East" fund to your basket or via check written to "Episcopal Relief and Development" with "Middle East Fund" in the memo line and sent to Episcopal Relief and Development, PO BOX 5121, Boone, Iowa 50950-0121.