A beautiful slice of life

When Jim Hightower was appointed to the Coeur d'Alene School Board 10 years ago, he was quoted in the Coeur d'Alene Press.

"I think this is a terribly great community," Hightower said.

His words were spoken during interviews prior to trustees voting on an appointee.

"I've lived in a number of places and I love the people of Coeur d'Alene," he said in the Aug. 21, 2012, article.

"I believe that the only thing that we really own in this life, unlike money, unlike property, unlike your assets, is your integrity. I think that's what we have to value the most. I think that's what we have to protect the most, and I think that if we can convey that to our kids we'd have gone a long way toward helping them be prepared for the world."

Such was the generous heart and kind spirit of Hightower, who passed away Sunday. He was 71.

"That news is just devastating," Coeur d'Alene School Board clerk and records custodian Lynn Towne said Thursday. "He is one of my favorite people."

Ever a champion for kids and public education, Hightower served on the Coeur d'Alene School Board from August 2012 to June 2013.

Towne said something that popped into her head when she heard of his passing was an idea Hightower brought to her within the past five years.

"He came in, he had this great idea, and we called it 'Reading Madness,'" Towne said. "It was born in March Madness. His idea was, 'How can we help kids, give them some incentive to read books?'"

Hightower was the director of operations for several local Domino's Pizza stores, owned by his wife, Missy. He used his connections to award pizza certificates to the young readers who met monthly reading goals. The classrooms that won the challenges enjoyed pizza parties.

Towne recalled he later did something similar to honor teachers who were nominees for Teacher of the Year.

"Jim came up with these gift cards, one pizza a month for an entire year. That’s 18 people who got a pizza a month for an entire year as a gift for being nominated," Towne said. "He just was a generous, kind man, and he had 100% support for public education. He was so supportive of everything we were doing."

She said his wife, Missy, is just as lovely.

"He adored her," Towne said. "He brought her to that teacher award banquet and I got to meet her and she's lovely as well. Just a wonderful couple, a wonderful business man. Just a nice guy."

Coeur d'Alene School District's director of assessment and system performance, Mike Nelson, echoed Towne's sentiments about Hightower.

"He and Missy, both of them have been so benevolent to our district," Nelson said. "They're also business owners. They don't get any money for giving things away. They were focused on making the community a better place."

Nelson said he was fortunate to be on a first-name basis with Hightower, whom he would sometimes run into while out in the community.

"He recognized that just being a business owner was not enough," Nelson said. "It was important to find ways to connect his business to the community. I would say that was one of his greatest talents."

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Hightowers donated hundreds of pizzas to frontline workers to "put a smile on a lot of faces that otherwise are stressed out,” Jim Hightower wrote in an email to The Press.

Hightower was also involved in the political sphere. Rep. Jim Addis, R-Coeur d'Alene, first met Hightower about 20 years ago through community involvement and later knew him through the Republican party. Addis described him as "a true gentleman" and "a good Republican for a lot of years."

"He always supported the community, very generous with his time," Addis said. "Just a really, really, really good citizen for Coeur d'Alene, and we will miss him."

Former Idaho House of Representatives candidate Nick Henderson and wife Abbi Henderson have known Hightower for several years. Abbi said he once supported her as a precinct commiteeman by helping with her campaign.

"He was so cool," Abbi said.

She said one of her fondest memories of him was from when she showed up early to a Lincoln Day Dinner a few years ago.

"When I walked into the ballroom, of mostly just tables and chairs, I found Jim. He was moving around the room from table to table occasionally stopping and, from my perspective, examining the underside of random chairs," Abbi said. "It wasn't until the Lincoln Day Dinner was well underway that I realized what he had been doing. Jim had taped envelopes with various prizes from Domino's underneath random chairs and announced to the whole room that people would need to check under their seat in order to find out if they had won."

Sure enough, a ballroom full of Idaho's most influential people, including business owners, legislators and the governor, dressed in their best party clothes, began checking under their chairs.

"It created quite the entertaining scene," Abbi said.

"Jim had a tremendous spirit of giving, and took great pride in supporting local leaders and those who wanted the best for our community, and the people in it," she said. "He will be missed by our family."