James McFADZIEN Obituary

To anne and family my thoughts are with you all Karen Ramsay Timaru.

I´ve know Jim for over 50 years as I´ve been a lifelong friend of Ian. I spent many weekends at their farm riding motorcycles and getting up to young boy mischief and I can´t remember Jim even once getting grumpy with us. Jim spent many evenings in our farm workshop working on my father´s cars, then my brother Mark and I cars, usually modifying them for more power and speed. Outside of the farm and workshop he made a real effort to connect with people and attended many social events, often beelining to chat to me about something super technical as we both had a deep interest in the engineering nuances of anything mechanical. He lent me books and gave me tons of advice usually after he had been thinking deeply about a problem for a few days. He was generous and kind to me and was a real gentleman. When I saw him recently he looked across the crowded room and gave me a big smile, I went and shook his hand and chatted to him and I ended leaving in tears as I could see how frustrated he was with his deteriorating health, and I know his body was in pain. I feel honored to have known Jim so well and for so long and as difficult as it is to accept he has passed there is is some relief in knowing he is resting in peace now.