ORLEANS, Mass. – James “Jim” Randall Roberts, 89, died at home on Tuesday, Dec 12. Jim was the husband of Janet A. Roberts and the son of the late James and Flora W. Roberts. He doted on his grandchildren, his garden and his piano, and was initiated into the Roman Catholic Church in 2008.
A fifth-generation Tennessean, Jim was born into a Memphis family with businesses in cottonseed oil and fruit orchards. He graduated from the Christian Brothers’ St. Johns College High School in Washington, D.C. in 1946, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was honorably discharged in 1949 at the rank of sergeant after serving at the Marine Corps Air Station Ewa in Oahu, Hawaii.
Jim and Janet Ahlborn were married in 1965 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. They lived in Palo Alto, Calif.; Des Moines, Iowa; Paris, France; Croydon, England; Princeton and Pennington, N.J.; and in Orleans, after Jim’s retirement in 2001.
Jim received a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations in 1955, and a master’s degree in business administration in 1957, both from Stanford University. Jim worked primarily as a business consultant, initially for General Electric and later for Stanford Research Institute, helping banks and other institutions in the U.S. and Europe create and then improve their computer operations.
Jim initially became a member of Our Lady of the Cape parish, in Brewster, Mass., and later moved to St. Joan of Arc Church parish in Orleans, where he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus.
Jim is survived by his wife and their two children: Louise M. Roberts and her husband James “Joc” O. Cronin of Dennisport, Mass., and James W. Prado Roberts and his wife Maureen E. Prado Roberts, and their three children, Quinn W., Genevieve L. and Samantha B. Prado Roberts, of South River N.J. A younger brother, Wingfield Roberts, predeceased him.
A Funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 22 at St. Joan of Arc Church, followed by burial in Orleans Cemetery.
For online condolences, please visit www.nickersonfunerals.com.
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