James Moser

James T. Moser, Jr. passed away unexpectedly on July 5, 2015. He was 67 years old. Born February 23, 1948, in Portsmouth, Virginia, and raised in Norfolk, he was the eldest son of Mary (Gray) and James Moser, Sr. Jim attended Norfolk Catholic High School, where he met his future wife, Barbara, and graduated from Granby High School. In his youth, he surfed, built model airplanes, worked a paper route, marched on Capitol Hill for civil rights, played guitar in a band, and enjoyed fishing all night and swimming way out to the sailboats at Oceanview. He told people he wanted to make the world a better place. Jim attended Old Dominion University and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor of science degree in economics, working his way through school and starting a family with Barbara in Richmond, Virginia. He later earned a PhD in finance from The Ohio State University. A loving, supportive father, Jim and Barbara had five children. They lived in Lexington, Kentucky, and then the Midwest. The family called Glen Ellyn, Illinois, home for a decade and a half, where Jim worked as senior director at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and, for fourteen years, as an economic advisor and research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. For the past three years, Jim was an executive-in-residence at American University’s Kogod School of Business and faculty program director for the Master in Finance program. Before joining the university, Jim served as deputy chief economist at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for six years. Jim also taught at the University of Kentucky, Michigan State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Champaign–Urbana, Louisiana Tech University, and University of Maryland at College Park, among others. His great joy was teaching and mentoring his students and then watching them flourish. An author of numerous scholarly articles, Jim’s research focused on the contribution of derivatives to the real economy, the arrangements private markets make to resolve problems arising from the use of derivatives, and the proper role of government in regulating derivatives activity. Active in his community in Arnold, Maryland, Jim spent time cleaning up roadsides, singing and playing bass in the choir at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church in Millersville, and as an inner-city literacy volunteer. He loved to tell corny jokes, read history, sail on the Chesapeake with his son-in-law David, ride his motorcycle, watch his son Kirk in Special Olympics sports tournaments, drink Dogfish IPA, and play blues guitar. His five grandchildren enjoyed his goofy spirit during his frequent visits to see them in Arizona, Illinois, and Maine. Jim is survived by his high school sweetheart and devoted wife of 45 years, Barbara (Brown) Moser; five children: John (and Beth) Heick, Jason (and Suzanne) Moser, Kirk Moser, Karen (and James) Francomano, and Jamie (and David) Huntley; five grandchildren: Matthew, Elise, Shannon, Alex, and Aria, as well as a sixth grandbaby on the way; his mother Mary (Gray) Moser; his brother, Michael Moser; his sisters Laura (and Bobby) Woodson, Barbara (and Mike) Brodt, and Nancy Moser; twelve nieces and nephews; four brothers-in-law; and many cousins, friends, colleagues, and students. He is predeceased by his father, James Moser, Sr.; his mother-in-law Catherine “Kay” Brown; his father-in-law William Brown, Sr.; his brother-in-law Tom Brown; and a newborn son named Jason. Visitation hours are 6–8 pm on Friday, July 10, 2015, at John M. Taylor Funeral Home, 147 Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis, Maryland. A funeral will be held at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church, 1070 Cecil Avenue, Millersville, Maryland, on Saturday, July 11, at 2 pm. A memorial service is also being planned at American University. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to support his widow and handicapped son in care of Women in Faith at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church.