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Obit of a friend
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Posted on Dec 14 2008
[I]James “Jim” Raymond Fauls died May 8, 2008 at his home in Tianjin, China, located near the country’s capitol of Beijing. He was 49 years old. Jim moved to Stuart with his family in 1974. After graduating from the University of Florida, he began his career as a teacher at South Fork High School before moving to Guam, and then to Thailand, where he lived and taught for many years. At the time of his death he had been living and teaching in China for a year. Survivors include his mother, Betty Fauls, of Stuart, and his sister, Mary Beth West, also of Stuart. Contributions in Jim’s memory may be made to the Martin County Literacy Council, Blake Library, 2351 SE Monterey Rd., Stuart, 34996. Published in the TC Palm on 7/20/2008[/I]
I first met Jim when he moved to Guam, we taught together for a couple of years and kept in touch through e-mail. Years later I would find myself on Saipan and he still in Guam for all those years. Then he asked if I could get him a job on Saipan, which I did and he came to Saipan to teach at MHS as an earth science teacher. Funny because he was an English teacher by trade and never taught science, but that class had some serious writings. He was a riot, he had a lot of crazy ideas only matched by my own. I knew he was an incredible English teacher, and I think that’s why today I probably look at English teachers with a different respect. But he had his demons, and boy, on an island they can get you and so as good as he was a teacher, I knew he had a different destiny. He followed on to Kagman High School after that and then finally moving to China. We still kept the e-mail going as he always read the Saipan newspapers online. His last one was just a few days before his death. I had been trying to get a hold of him since then because I hadn’t heard from him in far too long and then his e-mail accounts were closed and those of you who know him as the crazy guy he is would know that’s not good. Anyway…so here I find the final obit in his hometown newspaper. I don’t know how he died but I’d like to think it was much the same way one of his literary friends could imagine like Thoreau, Frost, or Hemingway. Godspeed to ya ‘Jimmie’. You’ll be missed.
[B]
Craig H. Garrison[/B]
[I]As Lito, Saipan[/I]
