Dr. James Robert Mozingo, Jr, known to friends as “Jim” and “Jimmy,” passed away on March 19, 2021. Dr. Mozingo was born December 8, 1940 in Biloxi, MS to late parents James Robert Sr. and Edna McPhail Mozingo before moving to Jackson, MS as a child with his family.
Jim graduated from Provine High School in 1958 and attended Millsaps College where he earned a degree in chemistry in 1962. He then attended the University of Mississippi earning a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 1968. He had a short but successful career as a chemist with Ciba-Geigy in Mobile, AL where he met and married, Carolyn Joyce TerKeurst, the mother of his two sons (Robert and Charlie). Shortly thereafter he returned to Jackson to successfully take over and run his father’s business of Mozingo Distributors, a repeating Top 20 distributor of Tom’s Chips. After selling the business in 1987 he returned to his academic roots by joining the University of MS Medical Center as a research scientist until his retirement in 2002. After Carolyn’s death in 1998 he reconnected with a friend from the old neighborhood, Alice Carol Dodson, and they married in 2007. Jim greatly enjoyed his retirement years with Alice Carol and experienced wonderful travels with her across the nation and world, including trips to the Mediterranean and China.
A devoted father, Jim was successful in passing on many of his own passions in life to his sons and family – primarily fishing, camping, and baseball. An avid fisherman, it is amazing he earned his PhD due to many forays into Oxford beaver ponds for his nemesis, the largemouth bass. Indeed, the bass on the Pearl River in Jackson once laid him low by inflicting “buzz-bait” elbow on him due to the excessive casting maneuvers he preferred to employ. Sharing a boat with him meant you quickly learned how to “fish fast!” He was a long-time member of Christ United Methodist Church and enjoyed singing in the choir for many years.
Jim is survived by his wife, Alice Carol Mozingo; sons, Robert (Lauren) and Charlie (Ellen) Mozingo; stepchildren, Lisa (Allen) Naquin and Tom (Laura) Beckum, 8 grandchildren, a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins, and his sister, Martha (Charles) Sides.
He is preceded in death by his late wife, Carolyn Mozingo; parents; and sisters Carolyn Hudson and Sue Carter.
Family and close friends will be gathering at Charlie’s home in Jackson to celebrate Jim’s life on March, 26, 2021 at 11:30 with a lunch following. Masks are requested and social distancing will be observed. Condolences may be left online at their website www.LakewoodFuneralHomes.com. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi and…take a child fishing.
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