Jim Stolzman, of Halifax NS Canada, has died after several years of battling metastatic prostate cancer.
Jim was born in Minot, N.D. on July 17, 1943 (“Why not, Minot?”) When he was 11 his parents moved the family to River Falls, where Jim’s father operated the Falls Theatre until 1970.
Jim graduated from River Falls High School in 1961. Through all four years of high school, he served as Student Manager for the football and basketball teams, and also played on the RFHS golf team.
He attended what was then known as Wisconsin State College at River Falls, where he played on the varsity golf team. This chapter led to his meeting his first wife, Sharon Lee. After two years at River Falls, he finished his college years at the University of Oregon.
After earning a master’s degree at Florida State University, Jim returned to the University of Oregon, where he received his Ph.D in sociology.
In 1970, Jim joined the faculty at the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He retired from the Dalhousie Department of Sociology in 2008.
Jim absolutely loved teaching. In 2002 he received Dalhousie’s Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching.
A year later, the Association of Atlantic Provinces Universities recognized Jim by awarding him the 2003 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Association of Atlantic Provinces Universities, describing him as “kind, open-minded, compassionate, respectful, approachable and committed.”
These very qualities extended into his world beyond the classroom.
His teaching was centered in his recognition that students come to university already armed with well-developed thoughts about how the world works. They aren’t empty vessels waiting to be filled up, but instead are seeking to understand by refining, building upon, or perhaps even rejecting their own ideas about our society.
In addition to his career-long interest in creative and effective university teaching, Jim offered courses in sociological theory and history, as well as his specialties of moral panics and the sociology of mental disorders.
Jim’s course in mental health disorders was remarkably popular: at one time it received ten registrations for each classroom seat available. In this class, students studied in depth the social basis for mental struggles and were relieved to learn that mental illness is much more than a set of individual weaknesses.
After his retirement from teaching, Jim served Dalhousie as an accomplished undergraduate advisor, guiding students through the complicated labyrinth of modern university life.
While Jim became a heartfelt (if lovingly critical) Canadian, something of the American Mid-West never left him. In addition to his longstanding and occasionally unrewarding support for Dalhousie basketball, Jim was a passionate fan of the University of Wisconsin - River Falls athletic teams, as well as Wisconsin High School Track and Field.
For ten years after retiring, Jim made it a point to return and spend his summers in River Falls, where he renewed old friendships and made new ones. Among other things, he enjoyed the company of the Caribou Coffee Crew each morning, and was an enthusiastic supporter — from the get-go — of the Fighting Fish baseball team.
Shortly before his death, Jim wrote this in a letter to a friend:
“I feel truly blessed to have grown up in River Falls. Don Richards and Dwayne Meyer were my Grade 7 & 8 teachers, respectively. Their example inspired and motivated me to become an educator, a decision I have never regretted.”
He was predeceased by his parents, Herbert and Alice Stolzman, and by his sister Marie Moses. Jim is survived by his wife, Willa Adair-Stolzman, whom he married in 1983; daughters Gretel Stolzman of Woodinville, Wash. and Julie (Cameron) Murray of Winnipeg; stepson Matthew Cartledge of Halifax; niece Emily (Mark) Jacobs of Wakefield, RI and nephew Jeff (Mary) Moses of Indio, Calif.
The family wishes to thank Jim’s many health care providers over the years, in particular the excellent staff of the VG site Palliative Care Unit, where Jim spent his final weeks.
Donations in Jim’s memory can be made to the QEII Foundation which helps fund new technologies, medical research, innovation and professional education. Donations will support the QEII’s palliative care unit, at info@qe2foundation.ca/donate, or by calling the QEII Foundation at 1-902-334-1546.
Arrangements for a memorial gathering of Jim’s friends will be announced for a later date.
