Walter James Amoss Jr.

Walter James Amoss Jr., beloved husband of the late Berthe Marks Amoss, father of six sons, former CEO of New Orleans-based Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. and founder of Seapoint, died March 30 at the New Orleans home of his son and daughter-in-law, Dr. John and Dunbar Amoss, due to complications from coronavirus. He was 95.

Known to family and friends as Jimmy, he grew up in New Orleans with deep roots in the city. He was the son of Walter James Amoss, who served as director of the Port of New Orleans, and his wife, Pearl, the beloved matriarch of the Amoss family who lived to 104 and was the daughter of Rex of 1925, Leonidas Pool. Jimmy attended Lassalle School, Isidore Newman School and Christ School in North Carolina. While he was a business major at Tulane, he joined the NROTC Training Corps.

In early 1945 he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy and was deployed to a rocket barrage landing craft in the Philippines in preparation for an invasion of Japan. He participated in the April 1945 invasion of Okinawa as an assistant gunnery officer on the USS Oceanus. He recalled vividly a Sunday in May of 1945, when the Oceanus and the Seaplane Tender St. George were anchored by some rocky islands 20 miles from Okinawa. “Suddenly a Kamikaze flying low lifted up over the rocky sides and came straight down at me, it seemed. I sounded battle stations on the bridge just as it hit the fantail of the St. George, where hundreds of folding chairs had been set out for church services. The bomb and the plane exploded under deck of the St. George, sending folding chairs flying in all directions and killing 20 men. That was as close as Oceanus came to being hit.

Jimmy’s flotilla was among the first to arrive at Tokyo Bay on Aug. 31, 1945, two days before the official Japanese surrender.

“We arrived at the entrance to Tokyo Bay at dusk,” he recalled. “We passed through the famous forts into a scene of utter destruction along the coastlines and drew up about a mile from the USS Missouri already at anchor. On the morning of Sept. 2, I watched through binoculars the parade of high-ranking officers and diplomats on the main deck of Missouri signing the surrender documents until my eyes could take no more. The war was really over this day. What next?”

Next was a life and a career rich in fulfillment.

After his discharge in June of 1946, Jimmy returned to complete his final semester at Tulane and, after graduation, to marry his fiancée, Berthe Lathrop Marks.

Jimmy’s career at Lykes took him to Bremen, Germany, and to Antwerp, Belgium, serving for 10 years as the company’s continental director. He and Berthe enrolled their sons in German and Belgian public schools and taught them to be citizens of the world. He returned to New Orleans in 1963. After 12 years as president of Lykes, he became the company’s CEO in 1986, until his retirement in 1993.

A highlight of Jimmy’s career at Lykes was his role in bringing about the resumption of trade between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China in 1979. Jimmy described the carefully choreographed negotiations in a 1980 article in the trade publication American Shipper. He had hired the former chief counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, Stan Barer, to represent Lykes and make the first overture on a visit to Chineese shipping officials in Beijing. The Chinese shipping officials were wary of Chinese ships being seized by the U.S. but they seemed receptive to talks. In January 1979, Jimmy and Stan flew to Beijing to meet with them. Five shipping officials and three cars awaited them at the airport.

“It was a cold, clear night and close to midnight as we sped to the city. Our eager eyes watched the darkened rural landscape dart by with a sense of romanticized wonder. Each building, forest and lonely person enchanted us by the aura of our long fantasy of this place.”

Days of talks followed, reaching a climax on Day 4, when Li Chih-Jan, the shipping manager of China Ocean Shipping Co., confronted Jimmy with a crucial question.

“Mr. Li looked me in the eye as he began the discussion,” Jimmy recalled. “’Mr. Amoss, if we send a COSCO ship to your country and somebody seizes that ship, what will you do to help us?’ Mr. Li, if that happens,” Jimmy replied, “Mr. Barer will immediately go into the court with representatives of our Justice Department to smash that action. And to the extent that your ship is delayed in our ports by that action, Lykes will accept a similar delay of one of its vessels in Chinese ports.”

As Jimmy admitted, “Inwardly, I gulped. I had said it, and if it came to that, I must do it – the stakes were that high. Stan was smiling. Stout client, he must have thought. Mr. Li put out his hand. I shook it.”

A Lykes ship had been the last to leave Shanghai when the city fell in May 1949. On March 15, 1979, the Letitia Lykes sailed into Shanghai harbor and loaded a cargo bound for the U.S., while the Chinese-flag vessel Liu Lin Hai called at Seattle on April 18. U.S.-China maritime trade had resumed.

Jimmy continued to work as a maritime consultant, founding Sea Point, a proposed transfer facility for large container ships to be located in Venice, La.

Jimmy served as a director of Hibernia National Bank.

He was a member of the Boston Club, the Louisiana Club, the Wyvern Club and the Pass Christian Yacht Club.

Berthe Amoss died on Oct. 6, 2019.

Jimmy is survived by a sister, Malee Hearin (Zett) of Gainesville GA, as well as six sons: Jim (Nancy) of New Orleans; Bob (Lisa) of New Orleans; Billy (Kate) of Washington D.C.; Mark (Liz) of New Orleans; Tom (Colleen) of New Orleans and Louisville; and John (Dunbar) of New Orleans; twelve grandchildren, Adam (Jaime) of Philadelphia; Philip of New York City; David (Missy) of New Orleans; Christopher of Washington D.C.; Sophie of New York City; Matthew (Madeline) of New Orleans; Ashley of New Orleans; Hayley of Louisville; Ben (Katherine), Daniel, James and Jeff of New Orleans; and seven great-grandchildren, Andrew, Robert and Claire of New Orleans; Luke and Savannah of Philadelphia; and Emma and Libby of New Orleans. Interment will take place at a future date in Metairie Cemetery. Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. The family invites you to share your thoughts, memories and condolences online at lakelawnmetairie.com. Donations to the National World War II Museum in his memory (nationalww2museum.org/give) are welcome.