IPMS-USA Founder Jim Sage has passed away

I have only today learned that Jim Sage, the founder of the US branch of the International Plastic Modelers Society, passed away one year ago this past Sunday. No one in the Dallas area knew where he was, and there were reports he was in a nursing home. In response to an inquiry from Mary Jane Kinney, IPMS-USA Office Manager, I found this on-line obituary after a brief search:

"Sage, James H. James H. Sage, 84, of Dallas, passed away on February 16, 2013 in a nursing home in Knox City, Texas. James was born September 4, 1928 in Kalamazoo, Michigan; the son of Howard & Bonnie Sage. He moved to Dallas in 1951 where he was employed by Southwestern Life Insurance Company. He married Peggye Bright in the early 1950s. James enjoyed traveling & spending time with his church friends & others. He also wrote a small paper called Durango Drive News, with his friend Old Bear. James is preceded in death by his wife and brother Richard Sage. He is survived by his sisters Mary Popejoy, Penny Lamb, Pam Doherty & Hester Dulla; and a brother Howard Sage. Funeral services will be held at 2pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, at the Hughes Crown Hill Funeral Home. Interment will follow at Calvary Hill Cemetery."

I'm pretty certain this is our Jim; I know he worked for Southwestern Life Insurance Company, his wife's name was Peggye, and they lived on Durango Drive in Dallas. I first met Jim in 1967 after joining IPMS, and I spent a night on their sofa once after Braniff cancelled my return flight back to home in Wichita Falls, and woke up the following morning to find one of their cats sleeping on my chest!

Jim and Peggye had no children, so there was no immediate family to keep us posted on Jim's health and whereabouts.

It was Jim who was responsible for the "International" in IPMS, when he began promoting the British Plastic Modelers Society by placing announcements in kits that he imported in the early 1960s. As interest grew, Jim became the first Executive Director of IPMS-USA, running the US branch from his house in Dallas. He actually was the first member of IPMS-USA, but forgot to give himself a membership number! Accordingly, he was named Member #0 by IPMS-USA a few years ago.

I have no idea how long he was in the nursing home, but what's really sad is that I moved back to Texas and the Dallas area in 2005, and Knox City is not so far away that I and others could not have gone to visit him had we known where he was.