Resident of Mountain

View James Francis Kelly of Mountain View, CA passed away peacefully on October 15, 2024, after a 10 month battle with brain cancer.

James (Jim) was born inBuffalo, NY in 1945 to Frank and Maxine Kaiser Kelly. During the long Buffalo winters, Jim and his three siblings would help their father turn the backyard into an ice rink so they could play hockey.

Jim graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1967 with aBSinPhysics and went on to receive his PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1973. Jim had a long career as a research physicist, first at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh and later with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Jim met the love of his life, Marilyn Horvath, in 1963 in Buffalo. They married in 1968 and had three children.

The family lived in Pittsburgh, PA, and then Montgomery Village, MD, before they all happily settled in the Bay Area. Jim and Marilyn raised the children in a house filled with jokes, games, and love.

Jim loved teaching. He was a physics professor at Marymount University in Virginia, an ESOL tutor in Maryland and California, and in his retirement he volunteered at Mountain View High School to help students with ESOL, science and math.

Jim was an exercise enthusiast and kept himself in excellent shape throughout his life. He was a lifelong jogger and tennis player. He completed a marathon in 1985 and played tennis as much as he could. In retirement he loved making new friends with fellow tennis players and would often play 5 days a week.

Jim was preceded in death by his parents, and his brothers Robert and Gerard. Jim is survived by his wife Marilyn, his sister Elaine Pease (William) of Lancaster, PA, his three children Dan (Michelle Friedland), Meg (Joshua Switkes), and Mike (Sara), and his five grandchildren, Max, Sierra, Annie, Henry and Timothy.

Services will be held on November 11 at 11:30am at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mountain View. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Jim’s name to the Stanford Blood Center.