Juanita  Griffin

Viegut Funeral Home

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Written by Gretchen Christopher, younger sister of James Gray Christopher In commemoration of our brother Jim (James Gray Christopher, 1935-2018), the flag flies at half-mast at my pioneer beach home, The Firs on Budd Inlet. It overlooks the body of water on which Jim learned to sail at age 10, in the cat-rigged sloop he purchased with money he earned as a paper boy, delivering The Daily Olympian, on bicycle, in the 1940s. Half his age then, I was his little buddy, having assisted him in building a raft on Cloverfield Dairy Pond, near our home at 811 Governor Stevens Avenue, Olympia, WA; and Jim, age 10, taught me to sail at age 5, around Olympia Yacht Club on Budd Inlet. A third of a century later, I would crew for a race on one of Jim’s sailboats, a Venture 21 named “Resolution” which he trailed up to Washington from Eureka, California, where he lived with his English-born wife, “Gina” (Gloria Rosina Dawson) Christopher - and where they had raised their daughters, Dawn and Sharon. Though, when I was married, Rich and I had enjoyed cruising and racing our Catalina 27, years later I found racing with Jim to be risk-taking and harrowing, as I tended the foredeck and spinnaker pole, which I’d never done before. Despite the spinnaker pole breaking, the boat slamming onto its right side and my hanging by my fingernails from the starboard rail, we righted, eventually caught up with the fleet and, against all odds, won the race! Afterward, walking the dock at Olympia Yacht Club, we encountered other racers who said, “Hi, Jim; how’d you do?” And he replied, “Oh, we did OK.” In an amazed whisper, I said, “Jim! Why didn’t you tell them we took First Place!?” Jim said calmly, “People don’t want to hear that.” At the Clubhouse, I checked the results. Sure enough we were First. That was posted on the new clubhouse, across the dock from the old darkened Clubhouse, where I had spent many a lonely hour, as a child, waiting for my Dad, my feeling not so alone and finding comfort by reading family names on the racing trophies in the display case: Ian Christopher (my father, racing Galatea, among others); Elmon Christopher (my uncle, a past Commodore, racing his various sail boats). One time, at about age 5, wearing brand new loafers and a little sailor suit, and waiting with Dad on the dock, I slipped and fell backwards into the water, seeing the underside of the boat as I flailed, submerged. Dad insisted no one fetch me out immediately, let me struggle as some kind of lesson to be more careful. We never did recover the little shoe that slipped off my foot in my thrashings. The remaining salt-water-soaked leather loafer dried hard and served as a reminder for years to come (stored on the shelf above the stairs to the basement of our farm house on 10 acres - and 500 feet of salt water front on Henderson Inlet). Dad had searched 10 years to find such a piece of waterfront acreage as home for his family of six (including me from ages 8 to 18, until I left home to go to college and then toured the U.S. in support of “Come Softly To Me”, a song I’d written in high school and recorded as The Fleetwoods: the nation's #1 Record, it was the first of our 11 national hits). Years later, when married and mother of two (Christopher and Kimari Matzen), I would follow in Dad’s footsteps, searching for five years to find just the right waterfront home for my little family. When I called to tell my Dad, that I’d found a place on the west side of Budd Inlet, he said, “Is it, by any chance, The Firs?” When I asked, “What’s the Firs?” Dad said, “Just a place I used to see when our Dad took us by boat from Olympia to Shelton for weekends. I’d see this house that had its name spelled out in tree limbs, T H E  F I R S.” As it turned out, a former owner, Markt Richards, told me he had found the remains of that sign, in the bushes, and wished he had kept it. Our new home was, indeed, The Firs (built in 1898 and documented in books of the Washington State Library). And 45 years later, my son Christopher Gray Matzen would lower the flag to half-mast in remembrance of his uncle: James Gray Christopher, April 26, 1935 - April 29, 2018. At age 83, Jim’s death was actually premature, for our father Ian Christopher (still winning sailboat races in “November Song” into his 80s) lived to be almost 97 - and our mother Helen Christopher, beyond 99. (See www.thefleetwoods.com/tributes.htm#Helen_Gray_Christopher). And Jim’s lifestyle was exceedingly healthful in terms of nutrition, exercise (long distance bicycling as well as sail racing), clean living, and following his passions. At the Redding hospital to which Jim had been airlifted (VA and medical care being inadequate in Eureka, California), we his siblings (Bill, Gretchen, Sonja), Jim’s wife Gina, daughter Sharon and son-in-law, Larry Naranjo, gathered (cumulatively having driven thousands of miles to be with Jim). At 8:15 a.m., Easter Sunday, to support and cheer him on, we gathered at Mercy Medical Center, and Jim appeared shirtless, in pajama bottoms, as we all converged in his room. I was astonished and said, “Jim, you’re still an amazing specimen!” He said, “Really?” For he’d lost weight, but the muscles still rippled in his taught 5’5” frame. “Really!” I confirmed, and then pointed to the name on the shirt I was wearing. “Do you remember this?” I said, pointing to the name “Resolution” on a crew shirt Jim had given me, years ago, and I was wearing for the first time. Jim’s eyes lit up with recognition and appreciation, “Oh, thank you! Thank you! I’m honored; I'm honored!” he reiterated, heartfelt, and I replied (both of us happily teary eyed), “And I’m honored that you gave it to me!” It was a crew shirt from one of his races on which I’d crewed, and even though I was not regular crew, Jim had made sure I got one of the new shirts. I had kept it, pristine, in a stack of commemorative shirts (including one from England where we Christopher women had gone to cheer Jim on). I wore it now, in hopes of bringing him comfort, amusement or pleasure. Mission accomplished! The doctor said, “Jim wants to go home, and if he can eat breakfast, he can go home.” The test results wouldn’t be in for 3 or 4 days, but it was likely that Jim had esophageal cancer and pancreatic cancer, in which case, the doctor said, there’d be no treatment, as that would be worse than the disease. All they had done was to put in a stint to drain the build-up of bile which had turned Jim yellow with Jaundice (to me he looked more gray - yet still handsome with his character-lined face and full head of white hair, reminiscent of our grandfather, the late state Senator Wm. P. Gray, Sr.) Before Vos had driven me from Olympia, and Sonja and Gail drove from Walnut Creek, California, and Sharon and Larry flew and drove from Rio Rancho, New Mexico, our gathering to support Jim was kicked off by our younger brother Bill/Ian (Wm. Ian) who had driven from Olympia, Washington to Eureka, California to pick up Jim’s wife Gina and drive her to Redding where Jim had been airlifted. Vos drove me directly to Redding, and now offered to drive Jim back to Eureka. Jim wanted to sit in the front seat, “So I can see everything,” (he must have known this might be his last time and to take it all in). His son-in-law, Larry Naranjo (who outspokenly idolized Jim), sat in the back seat with me. Upon arriving at their Eureka home and visiting all afternoon, my last words to Jim were, “I hope you’ll get well enough to join us for Family Reunion in Olympia on the 4th of July.” He died four weeks later, April 29, 2018, just three days after his 83rd birthday, and while that’s 10-15 years too early (compared with Dad. who lived to almost 97 and Mom who lived to beyond 99), I’m glad that he is not lingering, suffering. Yet the cause is a mystery. Jim did not smoke or drink, he came from healthy stock, had great genes, great nutrition, exercised terrifically, including long distance bike riding and world class sail racing. Vos wondered if Jim’s many years in the pulp and paper industry, culminating as Steam Engineer for Crown Simpson, exposed him to toxins that remained in his system and eventually shot him down. We will never know. Now, we are, indeed, having Family Fourth at The Firs, and Jim is very much with us, in our hearts, minds and memories, as we celebrate his life. Journalists and sailing competitors who grew to be friends with Jim have written about him with greater later knowledge of him than I had in recent years. Thank you all, so much, for sharing these insights, humor, and memories of Jim. As his daughter Sharon said, “He was a good father. He was a good husband. He was a good man.” What more could one ask? He was a beloved big brother - and always will be.

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James "Jim" Christopher Obituary | Altogether