Dr. James Edward DuPree Ph.D.

After struggling with a rare blood cancer for nearly 45 months, he is now back in the eternal arms of his beloved wife of 65 years, Patsy, who journeyed ahead of him in December 2024.

Born on Dec. 1, 1937, in Bainbridge, Georgia, he was the only child of Byrom Edward DuPree and Mary Kennette (Poitevint) DuPree. An eighth-generation American, he was descended from 17th-century French Huguenots who first settled near Charleston, South Carolina. He spent his early childhood on the family farm in Decatur County where his mother had been born.

During World War II, while his father was off serving as a Navy cook, Jimmy (as he was known throughout his life) lived in a house at 417 West Church Street in Americus that later became the first headquarters of Habitat for Humanity. His mother and her own mother welcomed other military wives into the home whose husbands were away at war, so Jimmy rarely wanted for maternal attention.

Post-war, Jimmy’s parents formed and managed the Dairy Co-op in Americus, and in 1952 they moved to Columbus, where Jimmy graduated from Columbus High School and played trumpet in the marching band.

He continued his education at what was then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Opelika, which became Auburn University in 1960, the year that Jimmy received the first of three degrees in electrical engineering, ultimately earning his doctorate in 1969. During his academic career, he joined the Institute of Radio Engineers and was invited into membership in Eta Kappa Nu, the international honor society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Pi Mu Epsilon, the national honorary mathematics society. He also sang bass in Auburn Men’s Octet, an a capella group, and participated in the Baptist Student Union.

Academics were only part of the reason for his devotion to Auburn. Shortly after he arrived on campus and pledged at Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, his life was transformed when he fell head over heels for a Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sister, MattieRea “Patsy” Pitts. The pair wed on Aug. 30, 1959, and moved into married student housing while finishing their bachelor’s degrees.

While still an undergraduate, Jimmy worked part-time under the auspices of the Auburn Research Foundation and participated in a co-op program with Boeing’s Pilotless Aircraft Division at Cape Canaveral, flight testing the Mach-3 BOMARC missile, a Cold War air defense weapon. During this time, he earned the first of a series of progressively secret security clearances, allowing him to participate in classified work throughout his career.

In 1960, with graduation approaching and an excellent job offer in hand, Jimmy and Patsy decided to start a family. She quickly became pregnant with their son, David Edward. But while standing in line at the commencement ceremonies, Jimmy was handed an unexpected letter of acceptance to graduate school. “We can’t send it back now!” Patsy protested, pointing at her belly. Nonetheless, they continued their Auburn educations until 1969, each earning three degrees while raising their two sons; Mark Kyle arrived in 1966.

In 1967, Jimmy won a NASA summer fellowship at Marshall Space Flight Center, where he reported to the staff of Wernher von Braun, the center’s director and father of the U.S. space program. That ultimately lead to a job offer from NASA subcontractor TRW to work on the communications system between the Apollo lunar lander on the Moon and the command module orbiting above it.

So in January 1969, as Jimmy finished his doctorate, the young family moved to Clear Lake, Texas, and the heady world of the Apollo program, which attracted young families from across the country. He often reminisced about sharing swim meet lane-timing duties with astronaut Jim McDivitt, who was in charge of the lunar lander program, while Patsy served as a Cub Scout den mother, supervising outings and crafts with astronauts’ children and once enjoying a long chat with astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

As the Apollo program wound down, Jimmy was transferred to TRW’s Space Park in Redondo Beach, Calif., where he would remain until 1993, working on a variety of satellite communication systems. Among his myriad accomplishments were multiple patents, a TRW Chairman’s Award for Innovation, and recognition of his work on some of the world’s first phased-array antennas.

When not working, he was an avid photographer with a fondness for Hasselblad and Leica equipment, as well as a scuba diver, a bicyclist with a penchant for riding in 100-mile “century” races, and an amateur sailor who enjoyed crewing friends’ boats on journeys to and around Catalina Island. In his 50s, he enrolled in flying lessons, ultimately becoming an instrument-rated private pilot before buying a Cessna 182 Skylane that he and Patsy flew up and down California and back and forth to Georgia three times.

After taking early retirement from TRW, Jimmy and Patsy moved to Pine Lake near West Point, Georgia, to care for their aging parents. There they built a stately Mt. Vernon replica on Cedar Point, a small promontory across the lake from Jimmy’s parents’ home. Jimmy took a position in Atlanta at Georgia Tech Research Institute in 1993, which moved him in 1996 to the Air Force Research Lab in Rome, New York, where he was a consultant for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) until 1998.

Jimmy is survived by sons Dave (Janet) and Mark; grandson Matthew Dupree; sister-in-law Donna Chamblee (Ron); nephews Keith Reason (Glorisa) and Chris Reason (Janet); cousins Mary Beth DeGon (Gary), Thomas Dupree (Sandy) and son Steven Dupree, Stephen Poitevint (Christy) and children Phillip Jordan and Preston, Angela Poitevint Taylor (Jimmy) and children Lindsey, Missy and the late Jimmy Jr., Alec Poitevint (Doreen) and children Katie and Meg, Lynn Poitevint Lee (George) and children Mary Beth and Melissa; cousins-in-law Brandee Colburn (Kerry) and Toby Jacobi (April); and many more beloved relatives and friends.