James Byrum Pace passed away in his sleep shortly before sunrise on the first day of Spring, March 21, 2018, while resting at his home after a successful war with lung cancer and a less successful battle with old age. Jim was born May 28, 1930, in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the second youngest child of Levi Wilson Pace and Sentella Nelson Pace. Jim spent his youth raising and selling rabbits, chickens, and ducks, scouting in his father’s troop, disassembling cars in the backyard, and remodeling the family house with his father. Jim hunted and hiked the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City for deer and elk with his brothers, father, and friends. His adventures with a Model A Ford paved the way for a lifetime of getting cars into and out of improbable places. Jim’s big brother Lee got him hooked on building and flying model sailplanes, continuing as a lifelong hobby.
Jim graduated from South High School at the age of 17. He served a mission in Argentina from September 1950 to 1953. He served in the Army from 1954 to 1956 as an enlisted M-33 radar repairman, and while stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco met his lifelong sweetheart, Eunice Stanton. After getting engaged in Park City, Utah, on February 14, 1956, Jim and Eunice were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 4, 1956, and celebrated 62 years of marriage together. Jim and Eunice graduated from Brigham Young University together on June 1, 1957, and had their first child the next day, steadily growing to a family of seven children. Jim bought Eunice flowers and shared Valentine’s dinner at home with her on February 14, 2018.
For his entire adult life Jim served as an Explorer and Boy Scout leader. He was proud to lead four generations of Eagle Scouts, from his father, to him and all of his brothers, to all of his sons, to his first grandsons. He led scouting for the Church throughout Western New York across 30 years, feeling especially honored by the creation of the James B. Pace Cabin at Camp Schoelkopf, New York. Jim received the Silver Beaver award, and continued to lead and organize camporees and the Klondike Derby for Salt Lake District scouting to the last point of his physical ability.
Jim Pace took a job with FMC Corporation in Pocatello, Idaho, starting on July 11, 1959, for whom he worked until his retirement in 1994. With FMC he moved to Green River, Wyoming, and then in 1968 to Medina, New York, where he built a career as a project engineer for FMC locally and across the globe. After his retirement in 1994, Jim and Eunice moved to West Jordan, Utah, where they have lived to the present.
Jim has served in leadership positions in the church since being set apart as a High Priest by Gordon B. Hinckley in Pocatello, Idaho. After moving to New York, he was the first president of the Medina, New York, branch of the newly formed Buffalo Stake, and continued to serve on the Stake High Council and as branch president until he returned to Utah. In 1998 Jim and Eunice served a proselyting mission to Malaga, Spain, living in Cadiz, Grenada, and La Linea. Since their return from Spain, Jim and Eunice have served three service missions in Salt Lake City.
Jim Pace spent his life to service to his family, to the church, to scouting, and to anyone he came across. He found a way to overcome any challenge placed before him. He built his life living the truth, and to the end of his life believed he had been true to his wife, to his church, to his family, and to himself.
James Byrum Pace is the son of Levi Wilson Pace and Sentella Nelson Pace. He is brother to Levi Wilson Pace, Jr. (dec.), Lorin Nelson Pace (Marylynn Haymore), Barbara Faye Pace Erickson (dec.) (John), Thomas Glenn Pace (dec.) (Vera Burton), Earl Harris Pace (dec.) (Jeanine Smith), and
Kathie Gates (Ken). He is sealed and married to his lifelong partner, Eunice Stanton Pace. He is the father to Suzanne Pace Larson (Jeff), James Michael Pace (Alyson Elander), Elizabeth Lee Pace Sampson (Benjamin Lee (dec.) and Joseph Sampson(dec.)), Mary Chalinor Eunice Christine Pace Lillico (Bill), Stuart Wilson Pace (Imee Sevilla), Nathan Daniel Pace (Margaret Watson) and David Stanton Pace. He has 42 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
A viewing will be held at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 S. Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, on Sunday, March 25, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. A viewing will be held at the West Jordan Westland 6th Ward at 7265 South 2700 West, West Jordan, Utah, on Monday, March 26, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., with a family prayer at 1:45 p.m., A funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on March 26 at the Westland 6th Ward following the viewing, with interment thereafter at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.
