Col. James Fearing Dinwiddie

James Fearing Dinwiddie took off on his final flight on June 19, 2023.

Jim/Jimmy/Daddy/Uncle Jimmy/Gramps/Colonel/Professor/Doctor/Sir was born on August 20, 1924, in Bluefield, WV to James William and Harriet Brown Dinwiddie. He was the second youngest of his beloved grandfather Dinwiddie’s 14 grandchildren and spent much of his youth at “The Farm,” the family property that now overlooks Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.

After graduating from EC Glass High School in Lynchburg, VA at the age of 16, he attended VPI, now known as Virginia Tech, as a cadet for two years. He then enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet where he spent the remainder of the WWII years learning to fly B-17 bombers and earning a commission as a Second Lieutenant.  He was mustering to go to Europe when VE Day happened, and mustered again to go to the Pacific when VJ Day ended the war. The family joke is that the Axis Powers were so fearful of his flying they surrendered.

The end of WWII saw the reduction in U.S. military forces, including Jim, who was honorably discharged along with thousands of other young men who had served our nation during the war. The two years he had spent at VPI qualified him for acceptance as a junior for the Chemical Engineering Program at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon). He completed his B.S. degree in 1948. During his time at Carnegie Tech, he joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and formed life-long friendships. It was through a fraternity brother that he started his first civilian job selling soap used in dairy barns assigned vast sales territory including California and Nevada. It was also a couple of his fraternity brothers who invited him to a party in Hollywood, CA, hosted by his future wife of 71 years, Jacque Struble, and her two best friends. Having a good job, an apartment, a car, a generous per diem, and now a beautiful girlfriend. . . life was sweet.

Jim and Jacque were married in October 1949 in Connellsville, PA. Catching a “space available” flight back East to his wedding, he learned that the newly formed US Air Force needed experienced pilots. When his new father-in-law, a mining inspector, asked if he would work at a job in the coal mines, Jim immediately re-upped into the newly formed Air Force.

Jim’s first assignment in the Air Force was in Biloxi, MS, where he was to report to a new school for training nuclear officers, ---- a rocky start for this young couple as they went right from their honeymoon to a home that, according to Jim, “was so small I had to go outside just to change my mind”.  Never mind that on their way to Biloxi, the Department of Defense had announced a huge Reduction in Force and the closure of the very school Jim was to have attended.  On the first day the students were told that the fate of the school would be determined within the next 24 hours. However, before dismissal that day, the commanding officer asked, “Does anyone have an engineering or physics background?” Jim and one other man raised their hands. When they returned the following day, the commanding officer told the group that the school had been saved by those two men.

Albuquerque/Los Alamos in New Mexico was their next assignment. There, Jim was assigned to “perform R&D, design, maintenance, and testing in support of the nuclear weapons stockpile.” It was also there in 1950 that Jim and Jacque’s son James was born (one day before their first wedding anniversary).

At the height of the Cold War the Air Force sent Jim to the Royal Air Force Base in Wiltshire, England to serve as the Nuclear Officer overseeing a squadron of B-52’s. Encouraged to fraternize, American and British pilots and crew enjoyed lifelong friendships, and parties, still legend to this day. Jim and Jacque’s first daughter, Heather, was born in England in 1953.

They returned to the USA in 1954 in order for Jim to attend North Carolina State for a master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering. From Raleigh the family proceeded to Oak Ridge, TN, where Jim continued his pursuit of the development of nuclear energy. This was also where the family of four became a family of six with the addition of daughters Hollister in 1957 and Leesa in 1959. Then it was off to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, OH, to research and design a nuclear airplane (a project that never came to fruition). It was also during this time he became a “fixed wing” test pilot.

After five years in Dayton the family bundled into a station wagon with a dog named Jet to drive across country to Palo Alto, CA.  There Jim continued to learn and fly while attending Stanford University for a second master’s degree and Ph.D.  Disrupting his education, he  volunteered to go to Vietnam for 18 months in 1967 where he earned many commendations including the Silver Star flying rescue missions in the famous group known by their radio call-sign “Sandy”.

Following the completion of his tour, the family returned to Washington, DC, where he worked for the Strategic Air Command at Andrews Air Force Base, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and then the Department of Defense to advise the Egyptian military. A failed hearing exam grounded Jim. He retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a full Colonel.  Turning to engineering, he focused his acumen on the Federal Energy Administration where he designed improved natural gas drilling techniques. Next he worked for the Parsons Company, where he designed the signaling system, still in use today, for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

Jim’s love of learning took him to the world of education. He became a full professor at George Washington University where, among other things, he co-founded the Department of Engineering Administration, and established the first computer lab for personal computers, mentoring many students in using this new technology to design and implement solutions for several international and non-profit organizations in the Washington, DC area.  As a result of his mentorships and Ph.D. sponsorships, he founded Devco Inc., an international information management consulting firm. Devco employed many of his students to deliver new and impressive technical systems focused on business process re-engineering.  Devco also established a practice in the International Technology Transfer Program of the U.S. government, collaborating with Boeing, Northrup Grumman and many other large corporations to share technical knowledge with Brazil and Taiwan.  Jim retired from his final career activities as a professor Emeritus from GWU.

And yet Jim’s true passion - aside from flying and education - was turning what he described as “an old dirt farm” into “The Farm.”  It was his haven and he loved enjoying it with his 4 children, 9 grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren, and uncountable friends. It was there he spent his final years driving his tractor, entertaining family and friends, and enjoying the view from the front porch. Jacque died at the farm in 2020.

During his 98 plus years he survived hostile fire in Southeast Asia, colon cancer, triple-bypass surgery, type 2 diabetes, COVID (twice!), cat bite fever, tick fever and more than a couple of tractor tippings. He must have been meant to survive all of that so that he could share his inquisitive nature, his superior intelligence, his curiosity, his joie de vivre, his charm, and his sense of humor with all who knew and loved him.

And those twinkly baby blue eyes.

Memorial donations can be made in Jim’s name to Carilion Hospice of Franklin County at 390 S. Main St., Suite 314, Rocky Mount, VA 24151 or to Carnegie Science at https://carnegiescience.edu/donate (select Outreach at Carnegie).