James F. Powers '59 died February 22, 2012.
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JAMES F. POWERS ’59
In early September my wife and I had dinner with an ostensibly healthy Jim Powers and his wife, Eva. A few weeks later Jim informed me he had just been diagnosed with liver cancer. On Feb. 27 we attended his memorial service. His intervening months were first heroic treatments with the attendant discomfort and then the quietude of hospice.
Jim was my Phi Delt fraternity brother. I roomed with him senior year and also during his two years at Harvard graduate school. Jim was a sociable guy with an excellent sense of humor. He didn’t take things too seriously but stood up for things when it counted. He and Eva were married for 53 years. They have two sons, Wayne and Glenn ’84, and two grandsons, Austin and Samuel. They lived first in Boston and finally settled in Portsmouth, N.H.
He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, M.A. from Harvard, M.Ed. from the University of New Hampshire and a Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University. He worked as a management consultant, small business owner, guidance counselor and psychologist. Jim served as president of the New Hampshire Psychological Association, a board member of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League and division commander for the USCG Auxiliary. He was a member of the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Appalachian Mountain Club, Seacoast Land Trust, Clean Water Organization and the Nature Conservancy, and he was on Barack Obama’s New Hampshire environmental committee. At his death, he was serving as a New Hampshire State Representative supporting public education and healthcare, ending discrimination against same-sex couples and improving the environment.
For relaxation, Jim liked to work in the garden, hike, walk and ski with his dog, Braveheart, and his wife, Eva. He sang bass with the Seacoast Men of Harmony. He said, “Exercise, nature and music—how can you go wrong?”
—Chester Clark ’59