Jimmie

When we lived in Bothell, Jimmie was the new kid in town when he was in high school. Before we moved there he was relatively shy, but once in Bothell, everyone wanted to know him and be with him. My recollection was that everyone listed to his ideas, wanted to come to his parties, and generally he was a large character in the LDS community in our stake. He had every reason to be a hot dog.

Once i was sitting in priesthood meeting, and a young man (it was Richard Horne) came in who had just been sustained to be a deacon. He was nervous and wasn’t sitting by anyone. He had never been to priesthood meeting. While everyone was coming in and getting ready to start, Jimmie came in with his buddies and headed toward their seat–the big guys had arrived.

Jim made a point of passing behind Richard as he walked to his seat. He stopped and put his hands on Richard’s shoulders and lended over and whispered to him. I don’t know what he said, but I do know that Richard sat up a little taller and was visibly happy that Jimmie had noticed him and said something to him. I was so proud that Jim had made the effort to reach out to a nervous young guy to give him greater self esteem and self respect.

This has been Jim his whole life–always the first to volunteer to serve, always looking for opportunities to make people feel better. He has projected this gift that he has into his profession. No father could be prouder of his son.