Preston Merrill James M.D.

1933 - 2017

Preston James was born May 13, 1933 in Logan, UT, and died at home, surrounded by his family, in Davis, CA on October 13, 2017. Preston was raised in Oakland, California. He met the love of his life, Beverley, in 8th grade; they attended Piedmont High School together, and married in 1954, after both graduated from UC Berkeley. He attended medical school at UC San Francisco, and also completed his orthopaedic surgery training there. He served in the US Army as a physician at the Navaho Ordnance Depot in Flagstaff, AZ and at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, CA, then returned with Beverley to San Francisco, where lived for 33 years and raised their 3 children. Preston practiced orthopaedic surgery at Children's Hospital of SF (later known as the California Campus of California Pacific Medical Center), and volunteered at Shriners Hospital for Children. He was appointed Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UC San Francisco, and served as a member of the Board of Councilors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and as President of the California Orthopaedic Association. After retiring from private practice in 1991, Preston followed his passion for pediatric orthopaedics, and began his second career: full time practice at Shriners Hospital for Children, serving as Assistant Chief of Staff. When Shriners Hospital moved to Sacramento in 1997, Preston and Beverley moved to Davis. He retired once again in 2013. Preston is survived by Beverley, his loving wife of 63 years; his daughter Michelle (David Artale), with whom he practiced orthopaedic surgery for over 20 years; his daughter Laurel (Mark Michael); his son Craig (Teresa Carlos); and his grandchildren: Tessa and Sara Artale, Thomas Michael, and Jared James, all of whom loved him very much and miss him tremendously. Preston was predeceased by his parents, Jane Merrill James and Albert Stewart James, and his sister, Janet Holbrook. Preston will be remembered for his passion for his work, his integrity and honesty, his forthright manner, and his exuberant and sometimes inappropriate sense of humor. He loved his wife, his grandchildren, his Labrador Retrievers, and his children (more or less in that order). He also loved visiting his favorite cousins, Donna Hall and Beth King in Atlin, British Columbia, and Alan James in Albany, Australia; hunting pheasants with Craig and the dogs; biking through Marin, Napa and Sonoma; bicycle touring with Beve and their friends in Europe; training orthopaedic residents and mentoring clinician trainees; and working closely with Shriners staff (especially in the Outpatient Clinic) to care for his patients. A celebration of Preston's life will be held in Sacramento on Saturday, December 9 2017; please email his family at: PMJamesCelebration@gmail.com for details. Knowing his love for Shriners Hospital, his family has created the Preston M. James Memorial Fund at Shriners Hospital for Children, Northern California. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the fund in his memory http://shrinerschildrens.org/preston-m-james-memorial-fund/.