James J. Nelson

Jim and his older brother Richard were Depression era kids. He talked about how hard his parents worked to put food on the table. Yet, as tough as times were, he enjoyed many activities growing up in Southern California, including body surfing and pier diving.

After graduating from Newport Beach High School, Jim attended Santa Ana Junior College before following his brother to the University of California at Berkeley. He played football in high school, junior college, and at Berkeley. While he got lots of playing time in high school and junior college, he freely admitted that by the time he played at Berkeley, he served more as cannon fodder during practices for the first team.

Before completing his degree, Jim enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 and began his service at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas. There he attended navigation school. He remained at Ellington as a Navigation Instructor.

Around Thanksgiving, Jim saw a flyer about a dance at the local YMCA in Houston and thought it would be fun to attend. There he met Catherine Elsie Frey. After dating a few months, they decided to get married. Catherine was Catholic and wanted to be married in the church, but Jim wasn’t. Rules at that time prohibited a church wedding between a Catholic and non-Catholic, so the couple married in the rectory instead. Jim eventually converted to Catholicism, and on their 50th wedding anniversary, he insisted that he and Catherine renew their wedding vows at a ceremony in the church.

After teaching at the navigation school for two years, Jim was accepted into pilot school, training first in San Angelo, TX and then in Lubbock, Texas. Upon completion of his training, he was stationed back at Ellington where he was a pilot at the navigation school. At this time, the Cold War had become the focus of the Air Force’s mission. Jim was shipped to Kansas to learn to fly the B-47 and then was assigned to Strategic Air Command at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. Jim flew missions to Alaska, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

In the early 60’s, the Air Force needed meteorologists and Jim volunteered to become one. The Air Force sent him to Florida State University where he received a BS in meteorology. Upon receiving his degree, he was stationed at Castle Air Force base in Merced, California as a meteorologist. His next assignment was in England as a meteorologist at the Royal Air Force station in High Wycombe. He was responsible for forecasting the weather in Western Europe, for both the USAF and NATO forces in the area. The family resided in nearby Maidenhead.

By the mid 1960’s, the war in Vietnam increased the demand for pilots, and Jim returned to flying. After attending survival school training in California and Nevada, he was assigned to the Military Air Command base in Warner Robbins, Georgia. With MAC, he flew the C-141 on numerous missions to Vietnam during the war. He was awarded the “Million Miler Certificate of Achievement” for flying more than 1 million miles during his time with MAC. In 1970 after 20 years of service with the Air Force, Jim retired and moved his family to Austin, Texas.

In Austin, Jim took a job with HEB, entering their management training program where he started as a bagger/checker and worked his way through every job in the store. He managed several stores in Austin and even opened the original HEB stores on Far West Blvd and Riverside Drive. HEB offered him a promotion at their corporate headquarters, but that would have meant a move from Austin. He felt he had moved the family enough while in the Air Force and declined the position.

Jim then started working for a fledgling institution of higher education called Austin Community College. He taught Business Management at ACC for 16 years. During that time, he also went back to school and received an MBA from St. Edward’s University.

Not one to sit back in retirement after leaving ACC, Jim volunteered to do maintenance work at his parish, St. Austin Catholic Church, for three years. He also volunteered for years with the St. Vincent de Paul Society and their outreach program. The Catholic Diocese recognized Jim and Catherine’s work with the diocese in 2005 by presenting them with the Lumen Gentium Award.

Jim is survived by his loving wife of 68 years, Catherine and by his seven children Mary (husband Sandy), Mike (wife Liz), Pat (husband Edward), James (wife Cathy), Matt (wife Louise), Richard (wife Kim), and Tom (wife Whitney), as well as 13 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Jim adored his entire family and regularly shared stories with and about the people he loved.

There is a visitation from 5 PM to 6 PM and a prayer vigil at 6 PM on Friday, July 5, 2019 at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home 3125 N. Lamar Blvd. A funeral mass will be held at 10 AM on Saturday, July 6, 2019 at St. Austin Catholic Church 2026 Guadalupe St. Burial will be at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery, 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road, San Antonio, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Jim’s name to either the Paulist Fathers https://www.paulist.org/give/ or to Hospice Austin https://www.hospiceaustin.org/donation-form/