James Lee Hafner Ph.D.

October 21, 1954 to October 24, 2015

Pacific Grove, California

Jim was born on October 21, 1954 in Monterey, CA to Joseph and Vina Hafner and joined his older brother Joe and sister Joni. He attended public and parochial grade schools and graduated high school from Bellarmine Preparatory High School in Tacoma, WA. He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Santa Clara University and completed his doctorate in theoretical mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jim began his post-academia career at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. He taught for two years at CalTech, then for three years at University of California at San Diego, where he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. He joined the IBM Almaden Research Division in San Jose and worked in number theory, complexity theory, image databases and storage system and storage protocols. During Jim’s 29 year career with IBM he earned more than 47 patents and was designated a Master Inventor. His last years at IBM were spent working in the Advanced Storage Technologies Department.

In 1988 Jim married Nancy Jaxon and they had 2 sons, David Jaxon and Paul Jaxon. Jim loved Monterey Bay and the town of Pacific Grove and bought a home in Pacific Grove for vacations. He enjoyed and supported the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its preservation programs, and the Delaware River Keeper program. Jim enjoyed a healthy and active lifestyle including running marathons, advanced scuba diving, photography, extreme hiking, and travel. In late 2013 he made his permanent home in the Lighthouse district of Pacific Grove with his son Paul.

After a valiant year long battle with cancer, Jim passed away peacefully at home in his brother's arms shortly before sunrise on Saturday, October 24th. Jim is preceded in death by his parents and his younger brother Jonathan. He is survived by his sons David Jaxon and Paul Jaxon, his brother Joseph(Barbara), sister Joni Rival (Linn), his aunts, Margaret Eckenrode and Rachel Maes, his uncle, Lee Marquez, several cousins, many nieces and nephews, his companion Lori Johnson and many friends.

Per Jim's request, a mass was held for him at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church on October 30, 2015. A celebration of Jim's life will be held on November 6th, at 5:30PM, at Mariani's Inn, 2500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA. 95051. 408-243-1431.

In lieu of flowers Jim requested donations in his name be sent to Marine Life Studies, P.O. Box 163, Moss Landing, CA. 95039, http://www.marinelifestudies.org, with special consideration for the Whale Entanglement Team (WET).