James Willard Hitchens

James Willard Hitchens died Friday, December 28, 2018 in Bountiful Utah. Jim was born October 1, 1932 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Fremont Earl Hitchens and Inez Maudella Peterson Hitchens. He was the youngest child, after Fern Maxine (Banks), John (stillborn), and Kenneth Leon. The family lived modestly in Salt Lake then Murray, Utah on a half-acre mini farm. Jim graduated from Granite High School and Salt Lake Area Vocational School/Trade Technical Institute (now SL Community College) as an Electronic Tech.

Jim married Edith McLean on July 13, 1951 in Logan Utah. They had five children – Brent Lynn, Ronald Allen, Jeanine, Joseph Karl and Lorena. He was an Eagle Scout and later spent many years as a Scoutmaster. As a young man Jim worked at a variety of jobs such as service stations, on lumber trucks, machine shop, body and fender repair, auto glass replacement, Garfield Smelter furnace tapping, ore dock unloading, IBM data processing machine repair, and taught Electronics a short time at Trade Tech. Jim was self-employed as an organ repairman (TronTek Electronics) and Day-N-Nite Alarm. He retired early from a successful 21-year career as an Avionic Systems Tech at Hill AFB.

Early in their life, Jim and Edith invested in rental real estate – buying, renovating, selling, and acting as landlords of over 20 homes, duplexes, and apartments from 1965 to the present.

In retirement he spent many hours tracing his and Edith’s family genealogy and history and saving old stories and pictures in digital form. He also volunteered for two years as a tour guide at Hill Aerospace Museum. He was always very curious with interests in aviation, history, anthropology, engineering, genetics, language, culture and all things scientific.

James is survived by his four children Ronald A. (Karen Lim) Hitchens, Jeanine (Scott) Wilson, Joseph K. (Christy Carpenter) Hitchens, and Lorena Hitchens, five granddaughters, and four great-granddaughters, sister Fern Banks and brother Ken Hitchens. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother John, his wife of 64 years Edith, and son Brent Lynn Hitchens.

No funeral or graveside services will be held. James will be buried next to Edith in the Bountiful City Cemetery. Please send messages or condolences to the family in care of daughter Jeanine Wilson, 286 Comanche Road, Farmington, UT 84025.

In memory of Jim, we ask that you make a donation to the AeroSpace Heritage Foundation of Utah, National Geographic Society, US Space Foundation, or a charity of your choice that focuses on the advancement of knowledge in a scientific or technical discipline.