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James Bradley Stamps ’42

A picture of James Stamps in 1943

James Bradley Stamps ’42, April 9, 2013, in Westminster, California. The day after graduating from Reed with a BA in economics, Jim joined Jeanne Goodman Smith ’42 and Doug Smith ’42 on a leisurely journey to Washington, D.C., in a 1930 Ford Model A. “Shortly after arrival, I received a telegram from the navy telling me to report for duty in Portland in seven days. It was a hairy trip back.” He was commissioned in the navy air corps in 1943, and that same year married Ann B. Rogers ’45. Following his active duty in the South Pacific, Jim and Ann moved to Laconia, New Hampshire, where he was employed at the Allen-Rogers Corporation, Ann’s father’s woodturning factory. The couple had two sons and a daughter and parted ways in the mid-’60s, after which Jim entered the Peace Corps and lived in India for two years, working in the Aid to Small Industries program. “Leaving India, I took a boat to Kenya, bought a motorcycle and toured East Africa, then Israel, Greece, and so on, up to England, where I put the motorcycle on a plane and flew back to the U.S.” He taught methods analysis at Dartmouth and led executive training programs before returning to England. There he bought a 31-foot cruising boat and sailed for 10 years and nearly 85,000 miles, successfully circumnavigating the globe. Jim and Joan Smith married in 1983. They sailed together and also traveled widely in a recreation vehicle, with a home base in Seal Beach, California. They skied, bicycled, hiked, attended college, and wrote novels. Jim stated that the Reed education proved superior to many other academic programs. “I speak not so much of the academic, as of the more subtle abilities to analyze a problem in a constructive manner. I am grateful.”

Appeared in Reed magazine: December 2013

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