James W McElroy

A Wonderful Life

JAMES W. McELROY, was born on October 3, 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pa., the first

of nine children born to Harry and Rita (Glaser) McElroy. He grew up in various areas of the city. In his first year of college, he joined ROTC and became a member of the Pershing Rifles and realized he had found his calling. At 19 he joined the Army as an enlisted soldier and then was chosen to attend Officer Candidate School. As a military officer, he had many assignments - various locations in the United States, one tour in Germany, and two tours in Viet Nam.

During his assignment at the Pentagon, he met and married Fran Minnick on April 14, 1979 in a civil ceremony at their home in Alexandria. Jim=s next tour took him to MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL. It was there that Jim & Fran built their home in Palm Harbor and started proceedings to adopt a child. Jim was due for an overseas tour and since the adoption agency doesn’t place a child unless both parents are in country, Jim decided not to take the chance of missing out on that special child and retired from the Army after 22 years.

Just a few months later, a call came in from the adoption agency. They had a baby boy available - would J&F be interested. After a split second of thought, they answered and then became the parents of Brian Douglas McElroy.

Jim then began a second career in real estate and was very successful. He knew the business so well, he was hired by a local Century 21 office as the trainer for new agents.

Jim eventually decided to open his own office, named the business Blue Heron Properties, Int’l. and spent over 20 years as a realtor.

It was after J&F were both retired that Jim started having more apparent symptoms of a devastating illness. During the past two years, these symptoms worsened and on his 70th birthday, he was hospitalized and then resided in a rehabilitation center. While trying very hard to get better, the disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)) took over and on December 10, 2012, Jim left his earthly home for one that is Above the Rest.

Jim is survived by his wife of 34 years, Fran, and his son, Brian; 4 brothers: Jack (Rita) & Kevin, Pittsburgh, PA., Tom (Jan) and Bob (Lori) of Atlanta, GA, 4 sisters: Peg McElroy and Maureen Glowa, South Dartmouth, MA, Rose (Lee) Smulczenski, and Nancy Trammell, of St. Louis, MO; a sister-in-law Pegi (Tom) Libby, Henderson, NV; 6 nephews, 8 nieces, 3 grand-nephews and 7 grand-nieces.

He was greatly loved and will be sorely missed!