Class: 1964
Major: German
Residence: Boston, MA
Deceased: October 27, 2016
Alumni survivors: Mr. Gregory D. Thomson ’92 (Nephew)
James graduated from P.J. Jacobs High School in Stevens Points, Wisconsin. He was originally Carleton class of 1963, but he split his Carleton studies with a year of German language and cultural studies in Freiburg, Germany. He graduated from Carleton cum laude in German.
Among his Carleton campus activities was serving on the 1964 Mai Fete Court. Our classmate, Ellen Mazur, also served on the Mai Fete Court. Ellen and Jamie were married in 1967.
After Carleton, Jamie joined the Peace Corps which became his life’s work. On his first assignment in the Republic of Niger, he found that peasants in the former French colony did not own the trees or the land which belonged to the state.
The consequences were enormous—corruption of the forestry service and further deforestation in the Sahel region of Africa. His research continued to look at the legal system and how it affected peasants’ lives.
Jamie and a fellow worker started a Hausa language newspaper which provided news and other information to the citizenry.
Upper class Francophiles objected to his newspaper and demanded his deportation. Instead, Jamie was called to the capital city to meet with the country’s president who encouraged his work.
Jamie earned a Doctorate in Political Science and African Studies from the University of Indiana. Thereafter he would spend the rest of his working life doing field work on rural development projects, first in Africa, but eventually in Asia and Eastern Europe.
During his years with the Peace Corps, Jamie traveled in at least 25 countries. His devotion to his work was extraordinary. He knew his work made millions of lives better.
Jamie retired from his service to others and settled with Ellen in the Boston area.
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