HAWLEY, James Palmer

of Lantana, Florida, passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Monday, January 2, 2012. He was 89 and a Renaissance man to the end: conversant in music, poetry, art, science, technology, fishing, hunting and non-contact sports. Jim was born in Manhattan in 1922 to Arthur Leopold Hawley and Edith Palmer Hawley, and grew up in Bronxville, New York. Before the United States entered World War II he joined the British Royal Air Force and trained as a pilot on Bermuda. After the attack on Pearl Harbor he transferred to the US Marines, flying meteorological missions in the South Pacific and rising to the rank of Tech Sergeant. After the war Jim completed his Masters Degree in Drama at Columbia University, where he met his future wife, Linda Beakes. They married in 1948 and embarked on the great adventure of raising a family, which took them from Bronxville to Connecticut to Nantucket Island to Cazenovia, New York, before retiring to Delray Beach, then Boynton Beach, and finally Lantana Florida. Along the way Jim applied his renaissance style to managing special effects for live television on NBC, teaching fifth grade on Nantucket, teaching English and Spanish at Cazenovia Junior College, selling scientific equipment and distance–learning courses, programming computers, and finally settling in as professor of English at the State University of New York at Morrisville. He retired as Associate Professor Emeritus in 1984. Always learning and experimenting, Jim could spend an entire day in a hardware store studying the function of tools and how they were made and how they could be made better. These he would bring home to his workbench – he made sure there was a metal shop in every house he owned. He loved to play chess and taught others how to play. For him, every move was a metaphor of life. He loved to fish from boats or from the surf. He was delighted by salt water creatures and hunted mussels, clams and every variety of shellfish. He mastered spear fishing and spent one summer making an air-powered fishing gun. He also perfected the use of blow guns for impaling rats at the town dump on Nantucket Island. He was enamored of the boomerang and loved to show others how to use one. He was a proficient hunter and trained his golden retriever how to chase up birds. Jim was fond of writing haiku and quoted Baudelaire at the appropriate moment. After retiring in 1984, Jim returned to the game of tennis, at which he excelled in high school, collecting several trophies at seniors' matches. He also picked up golf in a serious way. Music was a constant in his life, first singing with his guitar and in later years teaching himself the piano and composing songs. He appeared professionally at the Wauwinet House on Nantucket, entertaining his listeners with songs from many lands, but some of his best were songs inspired by the Irish Revolution. Jim loved to discuss philosophy and religion and rarely met a soul who could outwit him. He will be truly missed by true sportsmen and free thinkers. Jim is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Linda; his two loving sons, Bill and Kipp; his beloved grandson, Jackson; his half-sister, Margot Hawley Spelman; his nephew, Alexander Spelman and his niece, Laura Spelman Kim.