Obituary of Henry Thomas James

Henry Thomas James, former Dean of the School of Education at Stanford University and Founding President of the Spencer Foundation, died on September 30, 2016, in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Tom James was born May 19, 1915 on a farm near Viroqua, Wisconsin, in Crawford County, where his ancestors started their homestead in the 1850s after going West from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He began his education in a one-room schoolhouse and graduated in 1938 from the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, where he met Vienna Lewis (1916-2007), his wife of nearly seventy years and mother to their six children. After graduating from La Crosse, Tom went on to earn a Master of Philosophy Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and then worked as a classroom teacher, school principal, district superintendent, and associate state superintendent of education in Wisconsin. Along the way, he served during World War II as Captain of a Navy ship deployed to the European front. After leaving the Mediterranean, he navigated through the Panama Canal and up to Alaska, then shipped to the Philippines preparing for the invasion of Japan until the atomic bombs ended the war. Moving to Chicago in the 1950s, he received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago in 1958. Tom joined the faculty of the School of Education at Stanford University, specializing in education finance and administration. He served as Dean of the School of Education from 1966 to 1970, where he nurtured and inspired many men and women who went on to become national leaders in education. In 1970, he returned to Chicago to become first President of the Spencer Foundation, which in the ensuing years became the most important and influential source of support in the United States for disciplined inquiry into teaching, learning and educational improvement. He led the foundation for 15 years until his retirement in 1985. Among his many honors, Tom received the National Association of State Boards of Education Award for Distinguished Service to Education in 1973, and the Outstanding Service Award from the American Educational Finance Association in 1988. His many publications included the widely praised book, The Nation's Report Card 1989, co-authored with Lamar Alexander and published by the National Academy of Education. Tom and Vienna James moved to Minnesota in 2006 to be near their two daughters in the Twin Cities area. They are survived by their six children: Ann Grillo of San Francisco, CA; Thomas James (Regina Cortina) of New York, NY; Jennifer Regan (Tim) of Minneapolis, MN; Maryellen Lewis of Lansing, MI; Betty Folliard of St. Paul, MN; and Art James (Mary) of Salem, Oregon, along with 15 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren. Celebration of Life begins at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 8, 2016, Valley Community Presbyterian Church, 3100 Lilac Dr. N., Golden Valley. Memorials preferred to the Stanford Graduate School of Education, indicating in the memo line: "H Thomas James Fellowship Fund".