James (Jim) Coleman has been my Greenlaw next-door neighbor and admired colleague for many years and I miss him!
It was a rare day that we were too busy to exchange pleasantries or share some personal anecdote. My fondest memories of Jim are of him and Fred Hobson (also a hallmate) standing outside their offices and gesticulating wildly as they relived a recent UNC basketball game. If we’d won the game, they shared a play-by-play recap, relishing every triumph. If we’d lost, they were equally intense about commiseration.
But perhaps my fondest memories of James are of listening to his voice through my office wall as he met with a student. The glissando of his enthusiasms for whatever subject they were discussing distinguished him in my mind as a spectacular mentor, a genuine advocate for the literature he loved. Was he singing in there? Dramatizing ? The snippets of conferences I eavesdropped on were spellbinding. How lucky his students were and how lucky we faculty were to have him with us.