June 20, 1939 - February 16, 2025

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Born in Albany N.Y., Jim attended the Albany Boys Academy where he began his love of playing hockey. As a scholar of Hamilton College, Harvard University and the University of Rochester, he completed his medical degree in ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania. During the Vietnam War, he was stationed with the Air Force in Anchorage, Alaska, as the supervising flight surgeon.

Jim returned to New England, where he started his medical practice in Bennington, Vt., while raising his family in the colonial town of Williamstown. With the beautiful Berkshire mountains as his backdrop, he lived the life of a gentleman farmer, tending to his land, raising animals, chopping wood, and tapping maple trees for syrup. He explored the outdoors by cross-country skiing, camping, hiking, sailing and kayaking. He loved stoking his wood-burning stove, singing at the top of his lungs, speeding in his Subaru Brat and reading endless books about optics.

A true renaissance man, he completed a law degree, became a licensed real estate broker, designed houses, dominated the tennis court, taught college lecture series, sang in choirs, and played the bass in several symphony orchestras. He published three books, authored weekly articles for the local paper, and enjoyed searching secondhand bookstores for rare literary gems to add to his coveted personal library.

Upon retirement, he moved southwest to Green Valley, Ariz., with his wife, where he taught surgical procedures at the University of Arizona and transitioned to leisure activities like pickleball, sculpting, painting, singing and playing the bass in a traveling band. At 6-foot-3 with kind blue eyes and a charming sarcastic wit, Jim had a charismatic personality that made people feel at ease around him.

Jim passed away surrounded by family in Nashville, Tenn. He is survived by his wife, Catharine Fairbanks; his first wife Judith FitzGerald; his two daughters, Elizabeth FitzGerald and Margaret Heithcock; and his two grandchildren, Quinn and Skyler Heithcock. He was preceded by his parents, James and Agnes FitzGerald, and his sister, Patricia Mandell. Jim's ashes will be spread by his family.