Resident of San Jose

With much sadness we would like to announce that our dad, Ron James, passed away peacefully on January 5, 2025. He was 96years old. But what alegacy he has left us.

Iamwriting this on behalf of myself and my siblings, dad's five children that he loved and was so proud of; Lauron, Cynthia, Charles, William and Alexander. We all were witnesses to the great and forward thinking actions that he took to guide his beloved San Jose from sleepy, agrarian prune and apricot capitol of the world, to what is now Silicon Valley.

Dad's love of San Jose was deeply rooted in the three generations preceding his birth, when hearty English miners, by the name of James, packed up their families and left Cornwall, England, to live and work for The New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Co. in south San Jose. Using a buckboard wagon to convey household items and produce from the quicksilver mines to San Jose and back was the birth of the family business in 1888, James Transfer and Storage Company.

Dad's very early years were spent in the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz where, along with his beloved little sister, Jacqueline (Padia), were nurtured by their paternal grandmother, Effie James. Then moving to San Jose, dad settled into San Jose High School where he loved playing football, and met our mother, Laurel Schuetz.

Dad went on to Stanford University where he continued to play football and married his high school sweetheart at the Stanford Memorial Church. Still in his early 40's and upon becoming the first directly elected mayor by the citizens of San Jose, garnering 80% of the vote, he brought together like-minded, knowledgeable civic leaders\planners, to include the then mayors of the City of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. Together they discussed what they saw coming in the form of a high tech/electronics industry and what it might mean for San Jose. They got in front of what would be a wave of migrating population to our valley, by planning for what Dad always told us were the primary building blocks of a new or expanding community: water, garbage and sewage. To us it seemed so boring, but he was right and San Jose was ready, as was our dad. He was born ready.

After 31 years of marriage our parents parted ways. Dad remarried Dawn Stallings (1980/divorced 1991), Jill O'Brien (1992/deceased 1999), and Bertha DeRuyter (2005/deceased 2023). He greatly enjoyed their lovely families as well.

It is important to us that we share these and many other of his “growing up in San Jose” stories with his 18 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren, so as they travel into, around or through San Jose they feel proud of the grandfather that helped shepherd the City of San Jose to the next level.

Among his many accomplishments, of which he was proud and yet humbled were; Member of San Jose Planning Commission 1963-1965 Elected to San Jose City Council and appointed vice-mayor 1965 Appointed as Mayor ofSan Jose by the San Jose City Council 1966 Elected as the first directly elected Mayor of San Jose 1967-1971 Named “San Jose Man of the Year” 1970 Chairman of the Board YMCA of Santa Clara County 1971 President of San Jose Rotary Club 1972-1973 San Jose Water Company Board of Directors 1974-2004 San Jose Mercury News named James among the 10 Most Influential People in San Jose 1979 President and CEO of San Jose Chamber of Commerce 1974-1990 Chairman of the Board of California State Automobile Assoc. 1999-2001 In his “spare time” Dad loved to golf and was a member of the San Jose Country Club for many years.

At his request, a private family service to celebrate Ron's life will be held at the Saint Francis of Assisi Memorial Garden in his beloved San Jose.