James D. Morehead

Jim Morehead of Grants Pass died January 29, 2017 at Oak Lane Retirement. He was 90 years old.

Jim was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1926 and moved as a child to the West Coast. Growing up in Compton, California, he enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17. Jim’s service on the aircraft carrier, USS Barnes, took him to Japan at the end of World War II. After the war, he married Virginia M. Lovell of Medford, Oregon on September 29, 1946. He took work with the Forest Service in California, and he and Virginia started a family. Work took them to a home in Greeley Hill, Mariposa County where their outfit include three little girls and two boys.

Later Jim moved the family north, settling in Grants Pass. He took work as a bull buck for Robert Dollar, supervising independent logging crews, hiring and firing, cruising timber sales, and buying equipment. He continued his working life building logging roads as a superintendent for Gregory Forest Products. Retiring in 1992, Jim and Virginia spent a couple years in their cherished Greeley Hill. They returned to Grants Pass, and Jim went to work for Pacific Truck and Trailer for another ten years.

Jim was a fixture at Grants Pass High School games during his kids’ high school days. He was a member of the Elks Club for 69 years, working both sides of the bar.

Jim is survived by his wife of 70 years, Virginia; by his sister Phyllis Smith of Central Point; and by his five children, Jan Dietz, Gretchen Hastings, Dawn Ferguson, Gus Morehead, and Charlie Morehead. Also twelve grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

An informal celebration of life will be held at Elmer’s Restaurant, the Palm Springs Room in Grants Pass on Saturday, February 18, 2017 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.