James McChesney

Sunnyside Memorial Gardens

Sunnyside Funeral & Cremation

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A celebration of Jim's life will be held sometime in the late spring or summer in Eugene, Oregon, when his beloved daughters can be there. His family will make every effort to let friends and family know when the date is set.

James Glenn McChesney 

March 5, 1949 – Feb. 25, 2016

Cooking, grilling, hiking, biking, writing and reading: These are the activities that defined Jim McChesney, 66, who died of lymphoma eight months after learning he had cancer. 

By far the most important part of Jim’s life was being a father to daughters Lauren and Caitlin. His proudest accomplishment was writing speeches for former UO President David Frohnmayer. 

A native of Puyallup, Washington, Jim was born March 5, 1949, the first child of Helen Eleanor Wright McChesney and Frederick Glen McChesney. He was joined by his sister, Connie, a little more than two years later. 

In July 1951, the family moved to Sweet Home, Oregon, where father Glen worked as a surveyor for Weyerhauser, and Jim grew up tromping through the forest with his family on weekends and playing with a gaggle of neighborhood children in a nearby woods on weekdays. He described his early childhood as an incredibly happy time, and was sad when his father was transferred to the Springfield office and the family had to move again. 

Jim adapted quickly, attending Moffitt Grade School and Hamlin Middle School, making friendships that lasted his lifetime. At Springfield High School, he went out for football one year, earning an E for effort but not much playing time. It was a story he loved to tell. He found his niche in journalism and was editor of the student newspaper. He took pride in exposing a fire hazard in the school’s attic and writing editorials that weren’t always compatible with his father’s employer’s point of view, and his opinion pieces made for some interesting dinnertime conversations. He was proud of those high school accomplishments for the rest of his life. 

Jim worked as a newspaper carrier for the Eugene Register Guard while in junior high and high school, relishing the freedom of riding his bicycle up and down the wide Springfield neighborhood streets, and his last high school years worked as an ad inserter on weekends at the RG. It was a great job that allowed him to come home at all hours, when he was really “dragging the gut” in Eugene. 

After high school, Jim enrolled at the University of Oregon, but found life in the student union a lot more interesting than homework, and he left after a couple of years. Yet he loved learning, and formed relationships with high school teachers and college professors that lasted a lifetime. He was a lifelong reader of history, biography, philosophy, and just about any other subject, and subscribed to newspapers and magazines that expanded his world view. As a result, he was a superb conversationalist, and lively discussions were one of his favorite activities. 

He found Jesus Christ as a college student, and was an active early member of the Orchard Street Church. Although he later left the church, many of the close friendships that were forged there continued till the day he died. Jim’s thirst for knowledge and search for meaning led him to move to the San Francisco area for a time, where he lived in a Christian co-op and studied in a seminar-like setting with other young men. In about 1975 he traveled to Holland to study at L’Abri. He then traveled by train around France, Belgium, Spain, and Germany for several weeks before going to England and Scotland and then heading home. 

After sowing his wild oats (and, some would say, his soy, barley, and alfalfa as well), he married Diane Regina Pishioneri on March 17, 1984. They made their home in Eugene, and in 1987 became parents to identical twins, Lauren Diane and Caitlin Marie. Jim and Diane divorced in 1988, and although Diane later moved to Kentucky for her job, Jim kept in daily touch with his girls by telephone, traveling to see them for their birthdays, and bringing them to Oregon for several weeks each summer. They were literally his reason for being, and when he fell ill in the summer of 2015 and could not call his daughters, they called him each day. 

In his early UO days, Jim worked at a creosote plant and a cannery. After leaving the university, he continued to take classes at Lane Community College and kept his hand in the newspaper business in the circulation department, eventually becoming circulation manager for the Springfield News. He later worked as a reporter and sometime columnist for the paper and served as editor of the Cottage Grove Sentinel for a couple of years, a job he loved but couldn’t afford to keep. 

Jim returned to the University of Oregon in 1989 to complete his degree in journalism, and while there was hired as a part-time speechwriter for President Myles Brand. When Dave Frohnmayer succeeded Brand, he hired Jim to write for him, and together they crafted some of Frohnmayer’s most memorable speeches. Jim was devoted to Dave Frohnmayer, devastated when he died, and often declared he’d never met a finer man. 

He wrote for Dave’s successor, Richard Lariviere, until 2011, when Jim retired after a fall that resulted in hip replacement surgery followed by his third back surgery. 

In 2000, Jim married Janet Ellen Cooley, a teacher at North Medford High School, and the two made their home in Ashland, where they had lived together since 1997. They moved to Central Point in 2002 when it became clear that Jan’s condo was not big enough to contain their summer family, which included Caitlin, Lauren, and often Jan’s granddaughter, Bri, who was like a sister to Jim’s girls. Nor was it adequate for the entertaining Jim loved to do, wowing friends and family with his incredible cooking skills. He specialized in salsa, barbecuing, fish and seafood, and anything Asian, as long as it didn’t contain peanuts. He eschewed recipes, using them as general outlines and creating memorable dishes he could call his own. He could tell whether a steak or salmon fillet was done to perfection just by pressing on it with a spoon. 

Jim and Jan moved to Eugene in 2005 so Jim could work on campus. His favorite pastimes were hiking Mt. Pisgah, biking for miles and miles and miles on any trail he could find, and enjoying food and drink with family and friends. He had an insatiable appetite for books and an eclectic taste in music, teaching his girls to appreciate everything from Dylan to Phantom of the Opera. There was almost no type of music he didn’t love, and he had the CD collection to prove it. 

Jim loved to travel, and in those years he and Jan took Lauren, Caitlin, and Bri on several road trips, including memorable ones to San Francisco and exploring Oregon. Every summer he took the girls to Yachats for a few days, and they made Heceta Beach their special spot. They joined the Cooley side of the family in Sunriver for a couple of weeks each summer, and spent as much time as possible with Jim’s parents. 

Jim feasted on oysters in Washington state and Washington, D.C., crab in Alaska, haggis in Scotland, fish and chips in England, bread and cheese in Paris, beer in Oxford, and just about any kind of food in Kentucky. He dreamed of going back to Paris, seeing Gettysburg, and visiting South Dakota, but cancer got in the way. 

In 2012 Jim and Jan moved once again, this time to Clackamas, Oregon, where they could be closer to Jan’s family and watch their two younger grandchildren grow up. Granddaughter Bri moved in with them in 2012 along with her friend, Jeff, and Jim, Jan, Jeff, and Bri flew to Honolulu in May 2013 to celebrate Bri’s 21st birthday. It was a bonding experience, to say the least. Jim was nothing if not a good sport, and he fell in love with Hawaii. 

In the spring of 2014, Jim and Jan started out on what was to be a three-week road trip, but ended up being a five-week adventure, including a week in Louisville with Lauren and Caitlin. They visited 24 states in 31 days, dodged tornadoes and hail storms, saw the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, and best of all, experienced Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Every day was an adventure filled with sights (and sites), people, history, and wonderful food. Think barbecue. It was Jim’s last hurrah. 

Jim’s health had never been good after the fall he took in September 2010, and the last couple of weeks of the road trip were difficult for him because his left knee suddenly became very painful. It turned out he had arthritis to the point of bone on bone, and he had knee replacement surgery in March. He was recovering nicely when other symptoms began surfacing, and in early July was told he had Stage 4 non-Hodgkins Burkitt-like lymphoma. For a while it looked like he had beat it, but it returned with a vengeance and the journey was over. He died at home Feb. 25, 2016, early on a Thursday afternoon, surrounded by love. 

Jim is survived by his mother, Helen Wright McChesney; his sister, Connie Rudie; his daughters, Lauren McChesney and Caitlin McChesney and their partners Jeff Furjes and Blair Liford; his wife, Janet Cooley McChesney; his former wife, Diane Davis; his stepchildren, William Miles and wife Staci, Jennifer Gwin and husband Phil, and Laura Miles; his stepgrandchildren (he was their beloved Gramps) Brittany Miles and partner Michael Lim, Alexis Miles, Kai Miles, and Jaxon Furjes, and his stepgreat-grandson, Michael Lim, Jr. Jim’s father, Glen, died in October 2014. 

Thanks to Jim’s many friends and relatives who supported him with messages of love, support, and remembrances, and with their kind thoughts and prayers. 

Thanks to the Providence Hospice team that cared for him and us during the last three days of his life. 

Thanks to Dr. John Godwin, a dedicated oncologist and truly remarkable man; his incredible physician assistant, Grace Watson, who watched over Jim so carefully; Casey, his patient but firm physical therapist, and literally everyone who had contact with Jim at 7N in Providence Cancer Center. We, his family, were constantly in awe of the professionalism and friendship they showed Jim during his long hospital stays, from the nurses and nurse assistants to the housekeeper and people who took his meal orders and served his food. They cared, and Jim loved them all. He was a conversationalist to the end, learning about everyone he met and impressed by each of them. He felt safe. 

Special thanks to Chaplain Sabine Maresco, who soothed Jim’s heart when he needed it most. 

A scholarship fund has been set up in Jim’s name for journalism students at Springfield High School. This was his dream. Contributions may be made to the James McChesney Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o Springfield School District, 525 Mill St., Springfield, OR 97477. 

His daughters have spread his ashes in their special place, Heceta Beach, as Jim wished. His family will host a celebration of Jim’s remarkable life in Eugene in the summer of 2016, time and place to be announced. 

Jim was brilliant and funny and fun. He was a big man and gave great bear hugs. He wasn't perfect, but he was ours.

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