James Watkins

1948 - 2020

James Watkins, passed away peacefully in Venice, FL., Friday, Dec. 11, 2020, after his long 24 year battle with ALS.

Jim was born to Charles and Myrtle Watkins (nee Vevang) on June 22, 1948 . He was beloved husband of 45 years of Vicki (nee Latham); loving father of Elizabeth and Travis (Lacy); proud grandfather of Wyatt, Meadow, Odin, and Apollo; and cherished brother of Bruce Watkins (Kathy), twin sister Marilyn (John) and Cheryl (John). A special heartfelt thank you from our family to Laura, Kristen and Candy for their love and many years of devotion to Jim.

Jim was a licensed Professional Engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri. After college he spent four years as a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps.

Two of those years were spent surveying Alaska's coastline as part of the construction of the Alaska pipeline. Jim always claimed "the later grounding of the ship, the EXXON VALDEZ, had nothing what-so-ever to do with the quality of his surveys".

During his 18 years with the Department of Commerce, Jim specialized in directing the design and construction of 21 Federal Buildings and Observatories, most of which he was pleased to point out are still standing today. His job required traveling to such far away places such as the South Pole, Antarctica: American Samoa; Pt. Barrow, Alaska, and Hawaii. At 39, he became a member of the Federal Government's prestigious Senior Executive Service.

His last ten years of service was with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - the FDIC - in Washington, D.C., where he completed a 150 million dollar regional office and training center. During the height of the savings and loan crisis in the early 90's, Jim headed an organization of over 400 employees with an annual budget of 100 million dollars,and, surprisingly, Jim said "he actually knew where all that money was being spent - well, most of it anyway."

Jim was diagnosed with ALS in 1997. Jim and Vicki spent the following year living aboard their sailboat traveling from Maryland along the East Coast, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. They moved to Venice in August 1999. In May of 2000 Jim was asked to join the Board of the Lou Gehrigs Disease Association of SW Fl (LGDA) in Sarasota, Fla. Jim became Vice President and established the LGDA Patient & Caregiver Support Groups to meet the needs of the local ALS community. Jim was committed to providing help to the ALS community, knowing from experience, that by helping others, he could draw upon their strength to help himself.

Jim will always be remembered for his love of family, his legendary spirit, unstoppable determination, and passion for sailing. He filled his home with music and the awesome smells of cooking. A sometimes mischievous comic with a keen and contagious sense of humor, and an ability to touch hearts, Jim was remarkable and courageous in every way. Now, he will make the angels laugh as he has with us throughout his life

Donations honoring his life may be made to the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins www.Packardcenter.org