Jim Hasty

Jim Hasty, a family man with a big sense of humor and a talent for fixing things, died at home on November 13. He was 53.

Beginning in 1988, he never spent more than a few days apart from his wife and best friend, Shirley, whom he met on a date arranged by his sister.

Jim and Shirley were married in May 1989 and made their home in Stockton, where Jim had been living with his daughters from a prior marriage, Kristy and Julie, since 1978. Also joining the new household were Shirley's children from her first marriage, Miranda and Evan, whom Jim treated as his own.

In 1999, with all of the children out of high school, he and Shirley moved back to their native Santa Cruz to be near his mother and in-laws.

For the last six years of his life, Jim worked in the maintenance department at Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville. Always talented with a toolbox, he handled plumbing and roofing projects and installed an automatic watering system for the school's horses.

Jim also worked as a security attendant in Monte Vista's student parking lot, where he drove a golf cart and chased after students who did not park in their designated spots.

One stubborn student insisted on parking his SUV in the teachers' lot. Demands that he stop went unanswered. Seeing a new approach was needed, Jim cracked jokes until his good sense of humor prevailed upon the student. Soon the SUV was parked where it belonged. And Jim had a new friend.

Perhaps it helped that Jim, who took to automobiles and heavy equipment at an early age, never forgot the excitement he felt as a teenager driving an old fire truck to Soquel High School. He began driving cars at about age 10 and first sat on a tractor at age 8.

Later, he was a heavy equipment salesman for 18 years, including 10 years selling Caterpillar tractors at Holt Bros. in Stockton, until 1997. His easy laugh and lack of pretension appealed to customers, and he twice won trips to Hawaii for selling more equipment than his colleagues.

He also played in one very large dirt box as the company's "demonstrator operator," showing customers how to operate their newly purchased tractors.

Beyond cars and tractors, his interests extended to boats and woodshop projects, as well as cooking and gardening. In Stockton, Jim and his family enjoyed waterskiing for hours at a time on the San Joaquin Delta, where he also kept a houseboat. When weekends just were not enough, he sometimes took his daughters waterskiing after school.

And in many evenings spent in his woodshop, Jim made all manner of wood products, including birdhouses, lighthouses, and bridges and tunnels for his grandson Justin's train sets.

Now his woodshop sits empty, his saw idle.

The cause of Jim's death was a brain tumor, first diagnosed in 1994. After two brain surgeries and radiation, he recovered and worked full time for the next 11.5 years.

But early this year, following a recurrence of the tumor, he quit his job and filled the last months of his life exclusively with family and friends. Although he, like all of his loved ones, wondered what caused the tumor, he expressed no anger or self-pity. Instead, he visited the beach and mountains, dined frequently on the Wharf, and took a cruise to Mexico with Shirley.

In addition to his wife, Jim is survived by two daughters, Kristy Trujillo and her husband, Michael, of Lodi, and Julie Jenkins of Santa Cruz; a stepdaughter, Miranda Hoppin of Santa Cruz; a stepson, Evan Hoppin of San Francisco; four grandchildren, Justin Jenkins of Santa Cruz, and Kylie, Kaitlyn, and David Trujillo of Lodi; his mother, Mary Hasty of Santa Cruz; a sister, Mary Willis Goff of Santa Cruz; two brothers, Allen Hasty of Santa Cruz and Henry "Hap" Hasty Jr. of Chico; and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death in 1998 by his father, Henry "Hap" Hasty Sr.

The family will scatter Jim's ashes at a private memorial service.

Donations are suggested to Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz County, 940 Disc Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066.

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