James Robert Deneen died on July 16, 2016, at the Morris Hall Meadows in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, following a prolonged illness. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Thalia S. Deneen and his son, Christopher Deneen. A memorial gathering for friends and family will be held on Saturday, September, 17, 2016 at 1:30 p.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton.

Jim was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to James A. Deneen and Margaret (nee Simpson) Deneen on March 28, 1928. He grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, moving to Evansville, Indiana in his teen years.

In his late teens, Jim entered St. Meinrad Seminary where he majored in philosophy and classics. Upon graduation, St. Meinrad sent him to the University of Innsbruck for graduate studies in theology. Jim would often describe this as the best time of his life; studying theology in Austria, biking in the summers through Europe with fellow seminarians and studying German and French at the Universities of Paris and Heidelberg.

After ordination in Innsbruck, Jim returned to the United States to serve the Diocese of Evansville. He was chief administrator of a nursing home and Superintendent of Evansville Catholic Schools. During this period he also earned an MA in School Administration from Catholic University in 1957. Despite his many responsibilities, he found time to teach classes in religion and history. Teaching would remain a life-long passion for him.

In 1968, Jim earned his PhD in Educational Administration from Indiana University, Bloomington. A year earlier he had become Executive Secretary of the Superintendents Department of the National Catholic Educational Association in Washington D.C. The following year, Jim resigned his ecclesiastical position and was later laicized. He soon joined the Ford Foundation in New York City as a consultant on Educational Administration and began teaching as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Fordham University.

In February 1969, Jim married Thalia Stathas, a professor of English Literature at Indiana University. In September, they moved from New York to Princeton where Jim had been hired by ETS. The following year, their son Christopher was born.

Jim joined Education Testing Service (ETS) in 1969 as Director of Teacher Programs. He went on to become Director of Educational Services and was later a Program Officer for ETS's College Board Division and Advanced Placement Program (AP). He remained with ETS until his retirement in 1992, but until 2000, he was an active member of the Joint College Board-ETS Research Committee for the AP.

Jim remained tremendously active in retirement. The emphasis of his work had always been the betterment of teachers, schools and students. The areas Jim worked in ranged from better classroom assessment to enhancing students' critical thinking skills. This emphasis carried over into his retirement. During his professional career and retirement Jim authored over 40 articles and books on educational issues and taught 60 institutes and workshops for principals and teachers.

Jim also served as a member of the board of the Princeton Adult School and the board of trustees of the Princeton Charter School. As a board member, he organized and led the school's successful accreditation process. He was also a board member and chaired the Charter School Committee of the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) in Washington D.C. He continued to serve as a consultant to ETS, the AP, and the College Board, as well as The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Retirement should be a period of diversifying one's interests and Jim pursued this goal with vigor. He became active in the Princeton Old Guard, helping to organize speaking engagements. He also became a member of the Princeton University Art Museum Docents Association. As a docent, he was able to continue his life-long commitment to teaching. Jim also continued his membership in an informal Princeton Men's Group that holds meetings and retreats to discuss personal experiences, intellectual interests and news topics of global importance.

It was through the Men's Group that Jim became involved with his final, seminal project: helping Trenton public schools and their at-risk students. The Men's Group devoted considerable time to championing the need to provide better public education for at-risk Trenton school children. The Trenton Times made editorial page space available to Jim ad his colleagues for this project. Jim and the group were lead sponsors of a symposium to reform urban education for disadvantaged New Jersey children conducted under the auspices of Princeton University's James Madison Program. Jim and his fellow Men's Group member, Carm Catanese, also enlisted the Trenton Chamber of Commerce and the city's Housing authority to support summer classes for computerized reading instruction programs in Trenton public schools.

Jim and Carm sought and gained the support of several school principals and arranged workshops to train teachers to participate in the program. Working in collaboration with educational leaders, they increased involvement of Trenton public school parents in their children's education. In 2011, at 83 years of age, Jim published his final book with Carm Catanese, Urban Schools: Crisis and Revolution. Drawing on their experiences working in Trenton and the current challenges in education, the authors provide a roadmap to where public education might go and how it might serve those most in need. This book is both synthesis and capstone to a career-long passion for excellence in education and a life lived in service and dedication to that cause.

Jim Deneen's life is well characterized by Chaucer's description of the clerk in The Canterury Tales: "And gladly would he learn and gladly teach." Although Jim is no longer here, the illumination and inspiration he has provided to friends, family and the countless people whom his life has touched remain.