Kenneth James in his own words

After graduation from AHS my father was transferred to Ft. Lewis, WA and I attended my first year of college at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.  I then transferred to Walla Walla College in College Place, WA.  I married my wife, Janice, in March of 1964 and graduated from college in 1965 with a degree in mathematics. I then attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and obtained an M.S. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1969 in biostatistics.  Our first child, a son David, was born in May of 1969, while we were in Minnesota.

My first job out of graduate school was with the Commercial Fisheries Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game assisting in the management of the king crab fishery out of Kodiak and the salmon fishery in Bristol Bay.  I was stationed in Juneau, but traveled all over the state and it was very interesting to visit AHS after being away for about ten years.  I also taught mathematics at Juneau Community College (which later became part of the University of Alaska).   Towards the end of our two-year stint we moved to Anchorage.

In September 1971 we moved to Palo Alto, CA where I was employed by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center as a biostatistician and a lecturer in biostatistics at Stanford University Medical Center.  Our daughter, Tamara, was born in November 1971. In December 1974 we were transferred to the Chicago area where I became the director of a biostatistical coordinating center for the VA Clinical Trials Program and an assistant professor at Loyola University School of Medicine.

In August 1978 we moved back to Palo Alto, CA where I started a new biostatistical coordinating center for the VA Clinical Trials Program and was a consulting professor at Stanford.  We remained there until April 1992 when we moved to the VA Medical Center in Portland, OR and I was an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.  In 2000 I was promoted to full professor at OHSU. I retired from the VA in January of 2003 and from OHSU in December 2008.

Our son married in 1988 and we were blessed with a grandson in 1989.  He is now a sophomore in college.  Our second grandson, born in 1991, will be graduating from high school in June.  Our daughter married last year and is living near us in Vancouver, WA.

Since my retirement, we have been snow birds, spending the winters in Chandler, AZ and the summers in Camas, WA, across the Columbia River from Portland.  We have had the opportunity to travel quite extensively throughout the United States and to number of foreign countries through my job and on our own.  Our most recent trip, in February, was to South America and a cruise to Antarctica. 

We especially enjoyed coming back to Anchorage for my 40^th AHS reunion.  It was great to see my classmates, our principle, Mr. Montgomery, and our math teacher, Mrs. Carl.  We look forward to being back at AHS next year.