Jim Dunlap, 1964-2007

I’ve been trying to think of what to say to sum up Jim Dunlap, what he meant to me, and what he meant to a very large group of people in my area for days. I think a lot of folks are going to have the same kind of trouble I’m having, because explaining Jim to people who haven’t had a long conversation or even a few of them is next to impossible. Jim lived a lot of lives within his one, all-too-short life, some of which I’ve really only heard him talk about and was never really a part of.

Among the lives of his that I was part of, I remember Jim first and foremost as being a guy who loved to laugh. He laughed like he didn’t care who was listening, almost to an Uncle Floyd Show cast member degree. He was very passionate about laughter. But then, he was about as passionate about all of his likes and dislikes as a guy could be, a straight shooter who’d get in trouble from time to time because he spoke his mind and stood his ground, though always in a thoughtful, educated way.

Thought and education are good things to mention here too, because Jim valued both quite a bit. He was constantly looking to educate himself further, learn more, and make sense of the world around him. Beyond the fact that he loved learning, it also seemed to come easy to him, because he had an absolutely razor sharp intellect. One of the things that I haven’t been able to stop thinking in the past few days is that his brilliant mind isn’t with us anymore. I’ll miss that mind as much as I’ll miss the laughter I mentioned earlier, and if I wasn’t already inspired by him to do so, the examples he set by being as passionate as he was about both are ones I think I and others would do well to follow.

As I think most of the people who talk about him in the days to come will tell you (most of us met him when he was our DJ at New Brunswick’s now-defunct Melody Bar), Jim quite obviously loved music, and he devoured every last bit of it that he could. He was always on the lookout for something good that he hadn’t heard, always did his homework on the music he loved (and in some cases, even the music he didn’t love), and he loved sharing music with people. In that respect, while I was never one of his students proper, I did get to know Jim as a teacher, and I can say with some confidence that the world lost a really good teacher on Friday.

Beyond all of what I’ve said (though what I’ve said barely scratches the surface, in my opinion) and perhaps most importantly, Jim was a loyal, supportive friend for the entire time I knew him, which was a decade or so, and I can only hope that I was the same for him.

Jim used to end his DJ sets at the Melody with these words each week: “Well, kids, that was fun.” It was fun, Jim. Thank you so much.

For those of you who didn’t know Jim, or knew him but never got to see these, his LiveJournal is here, and his MySpace page is here. Obviously, no substitute for the man himself, not by a long shot, but if you miss him, those are some places you can “visit” him, and if you never knew him, perhaps those will help you get to know him just a little bit.

From the Asbury Park Press, Jim’s obituary:

“James Michael Dunlap died Friday, March 9, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. He was 42.

James was born in New Brunswick, and lived in Milltown most of his life. He was working for Energy Photovohaics of Lawrenceville with solar energy. He also was a teacher of English at Trenton Charter School and in the Carteret and Keansburg school systems. He was a graduate of St. Joseph’s High School, Glassboro State University with a B.A. degree, and he received his master’s degree at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He was also a DJ and did a stand-up comedy routine.

He was predeceased by his father, James F. Dunlap, in 1979. James is survived by his mother, Donna E. Dunlap of Milltown; his wife, Mary Frances Dunlap of Howell; his son, Robert White of Howell, and his brothers, Thomas E. and his wife, Riaza Dunlap, of Milltown and Paul M. Dunlap of Milltown.

Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 14, at Boylan Funeral Home, 188 Easton Ave., New Brunswick, followed by a 10:30 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes R.C. Church in Milltown. Cremation will be private. Family and friends may visit from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. and 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to NJ Sharing Network (for Donor Families), 841 Mountain Ave., Springfield, NJ 07081, or to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.”

(link for obituary here)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 10:10 pm and is filed under My Big, Black Cock.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.