Memorial Mass
St. George's Catholic Church-
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Email Details
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2010 N. Lucas St.
Post Falls, ID 83854
James Fenton
August 5, 1957 — January 5, 2018
James Fenton
James Nelson Fenton
August 5, 1957 – January 5, 2018
Jim passed from a stroke on Friday afternoon, surrounded by family at Kootenai Health Hospital in Coeur d’Alene. His death comes as a shock to his family and community, who loved and admired him as a friend, colleague, brother, father, and husband of soul-level kindness, integrity, and humor.
He was born the fifth of six siblings on August 5, 1957 in Murray, Kentucky. The family spent every summer Sunday afternoon on Kentucky Lake, anchoring their granddad’s cabin cruiser to swim and have dinner before returning to the boathouse at sunset. Jim enjoyed camping and hunting in the woods around the lake with his friends and siblings. He was also a happy, hard worker, with a paper route from a young age, up at dawn loading his bicycle with the Louisville Courier Journal. His family remembers him as a smiling class act from the start.
Jim studied accounting at Murray State University before moving west and completing his MBA at Oregon State University. On a hike near Seattle, he met Peggy. Jim and Peggy married on August 29, 1987, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Peggy’s hometown. Last summer, with their sons George and Hugh, Jim and Peggy celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary at home in Post Falls. Jim was a gentle and loving husband and father whose priority was always the security and happiness of his family. He brought lovable puns and fatherly humor to the house every day.
He worked for over twenty years directing the finances of the Panhandle Health District. The Health District remembers him as a colleague of peerless integrity, expertise, and generosity, coworkers calling him a “gentle giant of a leader” and noting that “he was our conscience, his work ethic above reproach. They also “loved it when his fun spirit came out with his holiday ties and his blue suede shoes”. One colleague said, “There was no question he was completely devoted to his family. Whenever I asked for time off with my family, he encouraged me to take even more than I requested.”
Jim loved college football, the Wall Street Journal, James Taylor and U2, salmon on the grill, and iced tea. He enjoyed biking the prairie roads between Post Falls and Rathdrum and skiing at Schweitzer. At St. George’s Church, Jim sang in the choir at Saturday night mass. He was also the president-elect of his Rotary chapter.
To celebrate Jim’s sixty years of joyful jokes, diligent work, and devotion to his family, a funeral service will be held at St. George’s Church, 2010 N. Lucas St. in Post Falls, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 11. A lunch reception will follow downstairs. English Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to two meaningful charities to Jim, the Rotary Foundation and the St. George’s Church Mission of Charity.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of James Fenton, please visit our flower store.
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