James Burnette

1924 - 2023

James Burnette
February 13, 1924 - August 17, 2023
Bellingham, Washington - James Floyd Burnette Jr. (Floyd to friends and family) liked to say that he hoped his death would be swift, not the result of some long-drawn-out illness, and on August 17 he got his wish. He tumbled down a flight of stairs, banging his head, and he died just hours later without regaining consciousness. He was 99 years old.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 13, 1924, Floyd led a life that was shaped by the Great Depression and the Second World War. When Floyd was five, his father moved the family to San Francisco, California, hoping to find a stronger job market than the one in Nashville. They arrived just in time for the stock market to crash, plunging much of the world into hardship. But with penury comes resourcefulness and Floyd entertained himself with low-cost diversions. He was a child when he began using field guides to identify the birds in Golden Gate Park. (Later, he would scorn ambitious "birders," with their checklists; Floyd could happily watch a humble sparrow build its nest.)
When he was a teenager, another book taught Floyd the fundamentals of mountaineering. Those two passions-birds and mountains-occupied his free time for the rest of his life. Floyd regarded birdwatching as a solitary pursuit, but he met people to climb with, and Yosemite National Park became their stomping grounds, as depicted in the documentary "Valley Uprising." A bolt that Floyd inserted on a difficult ascent became known as the Burnette Bolt.
Floyd was 17 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. As soon as he graduated from high school, he was able to find on-the-job training as a ship fitter in Richmond, California. By the time he was 19, both of his parents were dead, and Floyd was the sole support of four younger siblings. His status as head of household (and his extreme myopia) exempted him from military service, but his role as family breadwinner obliged him to postpone higher education beyond the end of the War. He eventually became the first member of his family to go to college, graduating from the University of California in Berkley with a B.S. degree in biology.
He chose teaching as a profession so that his summers would be free for climbing. He earned a master's degree in education and found work teaching biology at an American Air Force base middle school near Tokyo. It was there that he met and married his first wife, Toshiko. Their only child, James Hiroshi, was born in 1965. Floyd was devastated when Toshiko died of cancer, around 1983, but he carried on.
After retiring, Floyd settled in Bellingham for its proximity to mountains that he liked. People who met him during this last chapter of his life may recall the curmudgeon persona that he hid behind, but those who entered his more intimate orbit knew Floyd as a kind and generous man. He is survived by his son, his sister Katherine Juanita 'Jonni', his brother Joseph "Joe" Granville, nieces Linda and Marta and their families, and his second wife, Tina. The memory of his smiling presence sustains us.