James Edwin Fields

James Edwin Fields died at the age of 94 in Seattle, Washington on January 28, 2026. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Sally McMillan, and four children by previous marriages: James Edwin Fields, III (April), Catt Fields White (Jerome), Star Fields (Linda), and Alex Howell (Ranch), as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren galore.

Jim was born in San Francisco but grew up in Seattle. He lived in every corner of the United States including California, Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. He traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. But Seattle was always home.

As a child in foster care, he lived in many different parts of Seattle and sold newspapers to earn spending money. He graduated from Garfield High School and worked for Boeing after graduation until he was drafted. His service in the army during the era of the Korean conflict changed his life. With assistance from the GI bill, he bought a house near Green Lake and went to college.

He graduated from Seattle Pacific University with degrees in Business and English. During his college years he also contracted, and recovered from, polio while raising a family. He returned to Boeing as an industrial engineer before a “bust” cycle left him looking for a new line of work. His history as a newsboy informed his work as writer, photographer, and editor at community newspapers in the Seattle area. He also regularly contributed sports stories to the Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer – many of them about track and field.

As a small child, he started running on the streets near his grandfather’s farm in McMillin, Washington. He also ran on the track in high school and coached a track club in Seattle.

In the early 1970s he moved to Southern California where he worked as an editor for the Pomona Progress Bulletin while he earned a master’s degree in journalism from California State University, Fullerton. He then earned a doctoral degree in journalism from the University of Missouri before embarking on an academic career. He taught at multiple universities including 10 years as head of the journalism program at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.

News, track, and travel were driving passions for most of his life. In retirement, he wrote a regular newsletter about women’s steeplechase. In 2008, he traveled to Beijing, China where that event was contested for the first time in the Olympic Games.

A celebration of his life will be held on Monday, February 9 at 11:00 a.m. at the Sumner Cemetery, 12324 Valley Ave E, Puyallup, WA 98372.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the James E. Fields Journalism Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Gifts can be made online at blugolds.uwec.edu/donate . Donors can check the “give in honor or memory of someone” box and enter James Fields as the honoree. Then skip to the “What would you like your donation to support” drop down menu, type Fields and select the James Fields Journalism Scholarship.