James J. "Jim" McKevitt

1939 - 2025

Jim McKevitt passed away on November 14th, 2025. Jim was born on September 8, 1939 in Jersey City, N.J. to James F. and Margaret Conner McKevitt, the first of five children. Raised on the central Jersey shore, Jim attended parochial grammar schools and Red Bank Catholic High School, graduating in 1957. While growing up, Jim spent his summer days at the beach, fishing in the surf or local rivers, or hiking and camping. He spent the winters just waiting for summer. After high school, Jim attended Seton Hall University (one semester full time in 1958) in pursuit of a degree in veterinary medicine and Monmouth College (five semesters nights) pursuing a chemistry degree while working as a lab technician in the research labs at Colgate-Palmolive Company in Jersey City.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1962, he served two years stateside in the 1st Armored Division during the Berlin and Cuban missile crises. After his discharge from the army in 1964, he returned to Colgate-Palmolive and attended Rutgers University at night until 1969. Then he chucked the idea of a chemistry degree, married fellow Colgate employee Lucille Lempert, and moved to Logan, Utah to pursue his lifelong passion for fish, wildlife and the great outdoors. He graduated from Utah State University magna cum laude in 1971 with a degree in Wildlife Management and Biology and immediately accepted a position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Ecological Services, as a GS-7 field biologist.

He and Lucille moved to Pennsylvania, his first duty station, and it was there that children Daniel Patrick and Michael Sean were born. In 1973, the family was moved to Annapolis, Maryland where Jim and another biologist opened the first Ecological Services field station on Chesapeake Bay. After a coin flip, the other biologist got Chesapeake Bay and Jim got all the rest of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia as a field area. In 1976, Jim was made Supervisor of the Southern California Ecological Services Field Office in Laguna Niguel, at the time, the fastest rise from entry level biologist to field supervisor in the nation. Jim was in California buying a house in Mission Viejo, with Lucille still in Maryland preparing for the move, when daughter Erin Kathleen joined the family.

In 1978 the family moved to Auburn, CA when Jim was made Supervisor of the Sacramento Ecological Service Field Office, at the time the largest in the country and the focus of incredible fish and wildlife resource issues and of the California water wars. He served in that capacity for 12 years, resisting pressures to take a management position in Washington, D.C. and wishing to remain in the field and raise his family in rural northern California, where he was heavily involved with Little League and Babe Ruth baseball and youth soccer.

From 1992 until his retirement from the Service in 2000, Jim was the Program Manager for the Central Valley Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program, the most ambitious such restoration program ever undertaken in this country. After retirement, he continued his involvement in natural resources issues for a while working as a consultant doing field studies. He also joined the Association of Retired Fish and Wildlife Service Employees, attending reunions of fellow retirees around the country. He was elected to the Board of Directors of that group in 2011.

A lifelong practicing Catholic, Jim attended Mass daily and was deeply involved in parish activities at St. Joseph and at St. Teresa of Avila Parishes in Auburn. He served on the Parish Council, was a long-time Sacristan and Eucharistic Minister, and was the Altar Server trainer and coordinator.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Lucille, his children Dan McKevitt (Teresa), Michael McKevitt (Amy), and Erin Satterwhite (Brad), and grandchildren Tyler Smith, Reilly McKevitt, Ronan McKevitt, Phoebe McKevitt, Juniper Mckevitt, and Elliott Satterwhite. He is also survived by brothers, Robert McKevitt (New Jersey), Richard McKevitt (North Carolina), and sister Patricia Ann Carey (Florida). He is preceded in death by his brother Charles (Arizona).

Visitation will be held at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Auburn on Tuesday, December 2nd at 10:00AM, followed by a funeral Mass at 11:00AM, with a reception following at the church. Burial services with military honors will be held at Calvary Cemetery in Citrus Heights on December 3rd at 12:00PM. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Jim's name may be made to The Nature Conservancy at www.nature.org/en-us/ or the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation at https://www.nfwf.org/.