James A. Dodds Jr.

1933 - 2024

James A. Dodds, Jr. passed away at the age of 90 on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 in Covington, LA. Jim was born to James Asberry Dodds Sr. and Belle Eldridge Dodds in Oakwood, Texas on December 1, 1933. He grew up on his parents' small farm and led a typical rural life - doing chores, fishing and hunting. He went to school in Oakwood where he played baseball, winning a school letter in sports and graduating from Oakwood High School in 1951. Jim went to work for Gulf Oil in Houston, then entered the Army in 1952. His adventures began after he was shipped to New York City and stationed at a base in Rockaway, NY where he met his future wife, Barbara, at a USO event in 1955. They married the day after his discharge on August 5, 1956. His job was waiting at Gulf Oil in Houston, Texas and they lived there where Jim went to the University of Houston. In 1959 they moved to Long Island, New York and Jim found work at the Westhampton Air Base in the Bomarc missile program. He then went on to the Atlas program and they moved to Wahoo, Nebraska (1960), to the Titan program at Vandenberg AFB California, back to Wahoo, then to the Minute Man program in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Minot, North Dakota for the program there. Jim made friends everywhere he went and especially when he got to Cape Canaveral to work on the Apollo Project for Carrier Corporation in 1966. It was an extremely exciting project. They lived in Titusville, Florida and bought their first house there. Sadly, after the tragedy of the Apollo I capsule fire in January 1967, which Jim witnessed from his location, Carrier's part of the project was finished and the crew was transferred to home base in Syracuse, New York where he and Barbara lived for a couple of years. There, Jim attended Syracuse University, worked and played golf. Carrier soon transferred Jim to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1969 where the manager of a ship HVAC repair venture that Carrier owned was retiring, and so another adventure began. There were many opportunities for the business to expand and pretty soon sales of equipment to build ships' HVAC systems responded to Jim's genuine honesty and outgoing personality. Soon military projects, fishing vessels, and gambling ships were customers around all the coastal United States. Jim and Barbara moved to Covington, Louisiana in 1976. He enjoyed the area because of all the good friends he made here through his love of fishing, golfing, bird watching, LSU and the Saints football. He especially loved hunting with his Texas friends who were like family to him. In his retirement years he travelled to Alaska and Central America where a "bucket list wish" of traversing the Panama Canal was fulfilled. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, James Asberry Dodds, Sr. and Belle Eldridge Dodds, and his sisters Nadine Restivo and Dorothy Owens. He is survived by Barbara, his loving wife of 67 years. He leaves many nephews and nieces. His last years were spent at Christwood Retirement Community in Covington, with new and old friends, and nature in his surroundings. He will be sorely missed by all. A Memorial Celebration of Jim's life will be held at a later date. If you wish, donations in Jim's memory may be made to Shriners Hospital for Children, 2900 N. Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL, 855-401-4897, https://www.shrinerschildrens.org/en/giving; The Masonic Eastern Star Home For Children, P.O. Box 1327, Freemont, NE 68026, 402-721-1185, https://www.meshc.org/giving.html; or Northshore Humane Society, 20384 Harrison Avenue, Covington, LA 70433, 985-892-7387; https://www.northshorehumane.org/give. Please share thoughts and memories on the E. J. Fielding Funeral Home website at www.ejfieldingfh.com.