I knew Jim for many years through the AFGE union, through our day-to-day work, and through commuting on the same trains from Virginia to D.C. regularly. But it wasn't until May of 1998, when I was asked to manage the USIA page on the G-8 summit and to help out two other writer-editors detailed to the event, that I really got to know Jim well and to become friends with him.

The weekend of the summit, both Jim and Dick Baker -- who were the only I Bureau webmasters at the time -- were scheduled to be out of town. Because we needed someone to upload updates to the G-8 page over the weekend, Dick had agreed to take a laptop with him on his trip and to check periodically for any HTML files I might send from England.

When several of us discussed the situation further, though, we realized that just having Dick check his e-mail for updates every few hours wasn't going to be enough; I needed to be able to reach someone at any moment in case President Clinton surprised us with some statement that would need to get on the web page immediately, or some other emergency came up.

Jim ended up canceling his plans to attend a family reunion that weekend so he could be on call as webmaster for the summit. It turned out to be a blessing he did, because that weekend I encountered so many technical problems that I thought at times the whole project would collapse. But Jim kept me sane that weekend, double-checking my work when I was too tired to see straight, calmly suggesting solutions to get around software problems and hardware failures, and joking with me about having beer for breakfast when I got off work at 4 a.m. By the time the G-8 summit was over, Jim and I had worked out three or four separate methods for transferring my HTML files to the USIA server, and had also formed the grounds for a good friendship. After I got back from England, I presented Jim with a scarf in the MacGregor tartan as a souvenir from the U.K. and as a thank-you for sacrificing time with his family. He laughed, put it on, and said he was glad I and the other G-8 summit people hadn't brought him back a kilt.

During the intense workdays of the 1998 G-8 summit, Jim demonstrated many of the qualities I found so admirable in him -- his dedication to his work, his creative problem-solving abilities, and his ability to remain calm under pressure. But most importantly, his words and actions during that time showed me that underneath that grumpy, gruff exterior was a person who was patient, caring, and funny -- someone who was both a colleague and a friend. I am honored to have known Jim, and I will miss him very much.