I look around my home and see his influence in every room. The oil painting of a whaling schooner that was my namesake named after my great grandmother hangs above the fireplace. A photo turned into bronze is of my mother and father paddling across a still lake. Dana and I holding up the fish we caught on a canoeing vacation, posed in front of our Mad River Canoe. A weird piece of shadowbox art, holding wheat, lentils and pasta that hung in the kitchen in Waitsfield. I wouldn’t let Dad throw away and now hangs in my kitchen next to a photo Dad took of one of our camping kitchens.
I have collected these mementos that hang on my walls to remind me of the wonderful memories of my family though the years. Weddings, vacations, and just simple art. Dad had a keen eye for photography and taught me how to develop film and print photos in our little dark room. He was talented, creative, and could fix everything just like MacGyver with a pack of gum and duct tape. If he couldn’t fix it…nobody could. He built boats, he built relationships, and he built random stuff that you could never quite figure out what it was, but it always worked.
His friends and family sought out his opinions, and he always helped anyone, in any situation, whether it was pulling his daughter ‘s car out of a ditch (with Wendy the winch, yes, he named his winch), helping change the neighbor’s tires or collecting sap to boil and make maple syrup. He was an out of the box thinker, who approached solutions in many different and creative ways. He was the kind of person who, no matter what, would be there to lend a hand, usually accompanied by a very bad joke.
Dad didn’t enjoy the fanfare. He loved to create, design and build with his own two hands and could spend hours in the little shop or the barn on different projects including, but not limited to: boats, decoys, sewing, tanning dear hides, loading shotgun shells, making Christmas presents and so much more.
I recognize the last decade he was not able to participate as much due to his waning health, but he was able to collaborate with my brother Dana on new designs for boats as they began another chapter called Henry Designed.
The world was a better place with my father in it and he will be greatly missed by everyone who touched his life and everyone’s life he touched. Each person he met has a unique “Jim” story; some shouldn’t be told out loud and others should be shouted from the mountain tops.
The Mad River Valley was where Dad chose to start a family, create a successful business, and retire. The community cradled our family through my brother’s ski accident and has a special place in my heart, and I will always call it home. Thank you all for your well wishes in this difficult time, my father loved this community. From the first run at Mad River Glen, the first boat off the line at Mad River Canoe to the last bird for Mad River Decoy he truly lived his best life in the valley.
Please join Dana and me as we raise a toast, and a canoe, to our father and celebrate a life so well lived. We will gather for his Celebration of Life on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 1 to 4 p.m., with a remembrance and canoe raising at 2 p.m. at Lawson’s Finest Campus, the former Mad River Canoe Factory, 167 Mad River Canoe Road, Waitsfield. We hope you will join us in sharing stories, memories, and laughter as we honor the legacy of our dad.
