James Walter Bonar

Jim was born January 25, 1935 in Ft Wayne, IN to Walter “Bud” and Helen Bonar. He met the love of his life, Beverly Phillips, in their church’s Youth Fellowship. They married and had two children while still in Ft Wayne; Tamira Lingelbach (Calvin) and Douglas (Paula). The family moved to Orlando in 1960 where they had two more children Scott (Dawn), and Todd who predeceased him. He and Bev celebrated 57 years of marriage and are now reunited in heaven. As a 63-year member of St. Andrews United Methodist Church, he was a leader, choir member, Sunday School teacher, Trustee, general fix-it guy, and mentor. Jim was the stereotypical engineer – there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix.

He had a distinguished career in the aerospace industry with Martin Company (now Lockheed Martin) and worked mainly on space and defense programs. While raising his children, he could be seen on the sidelines as a coach or fan, he built sets for school programs, and he served on several community boards and booster clubs. And he loved cars – particularly hot rods!

He was blessed with 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. In addition to his family mentioned, he is survived by his brother, Ted (Kate) of Silver Springs, MD.

A Celebration of Life will be held in his honor at College Park United Methodist Church, 644 W. Princeton St., Orlando, FL 32804 on May 6 at 10am. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Tunnels to Towers Foundation (https://t2t.org).