James Stafford Dolliver, 87

James Stafford Dolliver, 87

James Stafford Dolliver passed away on Aug. 8, 2019, in Kent, Wash., after a short illness. He was born to William Stafford Dolliver and Anne Brown Dolliver on Oct. 26, 1931, in Long Beach, Calif. Jim was raised in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and attended Cornell University, where he earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees. In 1954, he married Mary Ann (Polly) Whitaker in Schenectady, N.Y.

From 1953 to 1955, Jim served in the United States Navy during the Korean conflict and was line officer on a hospital ship and a water tanker. Following his graduate work at Cornell, he conducted research in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellowship. He and the family then returned to Ithaca, where Jim assumed a position in Cornell’s College of Agriculture.

In 1962, Jim left Cornell to become dean of Jefferson Community College in Watertown, N.Y., followed by a move in 1968 to Eastern Washington University, where he worked in several administrative positions. Moving to the Pacific Northwest enabled him and the family to join his parents as summer residents on Lake Coeur d’Alene, where family roots date back to 1912. Jim retired from academia in 1994 from Gonzaga University, where he served as director of Gonzaga’s Studies Abroad program.

Jim is preceded in death by his parents and an infant son. In addition to his wife, Jim is survived by a brother, Roger Dolliver of San Angelo, Texas, daughters Diane Swensen (Gail Thomas), Denise Glover (Bill), Jill Christiansen (Dave), Joyce Hammer (Mark); 12 grandchildren: Melissa Bartlett, Jessica Murphy Manca, Drew Maffei, Bryan, Eric and Mark Glover, David, Dan and Madeline Christiansen, Scott Legel, Ian and Erika Hammer, and six great-grandchildren.

A private service will be held at a later date; interment of ashes will be at the columbarium of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Spokane.