James L. Coleman

Jim was the beloved son of the late, Joseph L. and Margaret C. Coleman and brother of the late Christine Coleman. He is survived by his loving sisters, Jean Fredericks (Ray), Marybeth (Don Pritchett) and Eileen (Phil Costello), his adoring nieces and nephews, Meghan Fredericks and her fiancé, Elias Patrick, Lauren Dwulet, Mark Fredericks, Greg Pritchett and grand nieces and nephews, Joe, Violet, Rita, Conor and Hannah. He grew up in Hicksville, NY, attended St. Ignatius Loyola School and Hicksville High School. He graduated from Hofstra University and earned a master’s degree in micro-biology from C. W. Post (LIU).

Jim started to work as a research scientist in 1980 in the Division of Communicable Diseases of the New York State Department of Health in a project investigating outbreaks of tick-borne diseases in Long Island. He worked initially to document the frequency and distribution of an emergent infection known as Babesiosis putting in motion the means to identify and diagnose it. Work with Babesiosis in the early 1980’s led to his greatest achievement which was to participate in the discovery of the agent that causes Lyme disease. Working with a group of scientists from Stony Brook University and the National Institutes of Health, Jim was the first to isolate the spirochete, Borrelia, from patients with Lyme disease, and this discovery was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983. He participated in the identification of the reservoir of the Borrelia, and in the characterization of canine Lyme disease. Since those discovery years, Jim continued to do research on Lyme disease and specifically, how Borrelia causes aspects of the disease. He pioneered work on the role of the coagulation cascade factors on Borrelia infection as well on the proteases that Borrelia uses to evade the immune response. Throughout his entire career, Jim published over 140 scientific manuscripts in the most prestigious medical journals, and these have been quoted hundreds of times by other investigators in the field.

Jim was a respected scientist at home as well as abroad. He participated in many national and international conferences to present his work. Jim retired as a Research Scientist in the Center for Infectious Diseases of the Renaissance School of Medicine in the spring of 2022 at the end of an extraordinary scientific career. His participation in the discovery of the Borrelia resulted in being able to treat and cure millions of patients with tick-borne infections. Not too many people can make that claim.

In addition to being a respected scientist, he was a consummate musician. In grammar school he sang in the St. Ignatius Children’s Choir, and, at the same time, inspired by the music explosion ignited by the British Invasion of the mid ‘60s, began playing percussion in basement and garage bands using a Scotch Cooler for the snare drum, some metal trays for cymbals, and an ottoman for tom-tom and bass. By seventh grade he was taking guitar lessons. Jim soon began playing in bands, duos, and trios, playing and singing in coffee houses, restaurants, wine & cheese cafes and at St. Ignatius “Folk Masses”—taking up the twelve-string guitar for the latter. By the end of high school, Jim, now an accomplished bass guitarist, helped form the rock band Jack Spratt with Larry Brittain, soon-to-be world-renowned percussionist Rich Holly, and virtuoso singer, guitarist, and chorister Peter Ciarelli. While in college, Jim found new inspiration from traditional musical forms like sea-chanties, Irish folk music, old-time Appalachian fiddle and string band music, and, especially, bluegrass. Jim took up the banjo, excelling at Scruggs-style banjo picking, and helped form the Jumbo String Band (named, partly, for Jim’s softball team nickname: Jumbo Jim Coleman) with Larry and bassist Bill Clockel. Jim sang the high tenor parts that give bluegrass the distinctive “high lonesome sound.” The Jumbos were finalists and winners of several bluegrass competitions, recorded five albums, toured Switzerland, England, and Scotland (headlining the first-ever Scottish Bluegrass Festival), performed at many such events and concerts as Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, the dedication of the South Street Museum, Celebrate Brooklyn, and played in festivals and nearly every major acoustic-music venue in the northeast states. In the ‘90s, Jim and band members formed the short-lived acoustic-country-jazz-rock fusion group Empty Suits. Jim also learned to play harmonica and autoharp in the neo-Appalachian style of Bryan Bowers—after watching Bowers perform at a Cornell University folk festival in 1974.

Jim was an avid golfer, hiker, reader and master carpenter. He enjoyed travelling, football and baseball and was a dedicated Jets and Mets fan but he valued his family above all else. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to The Thomas Hartman Center for Parkinson’s Research at Stony Brook University. Please see the link below under "donations".