Jim was born in Detroit Michigan on October 4, 1952 and adopted by Laura and Clyde Morgan. He was soon joined by his adopted sister Lisa.
He later moved to moved to Eastern Oregon, living in Summerville, Embler, LaGrande, and Ontario. In this time he farmed, built houses, worked for local government and eventually served an apprenticeship as a blacksmith and later bought the blacksmith's shop in Embler. He enjoyed great success as a blacksmith and his shop did very well.
In the early 80's he returned to the Portland area and worked in machine tool sales, and it was in this time that he met his future wife, Sandy Rose, with whom he worked providing equipment leases for his customers.
In 1986, after initial misdiagnoses, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The misdiagnoses delayed treatment, which made fighting the lymphoma that much more difficult, but it was ultimately beaten back with radiation. However, the radiation had damaged his lungs, considerably reducing his quality of life and leaving him with a progressive lung condition which would trouble him for the rest of his life.
Jim and Sandy lived in Tigard until 2007, when, as empty nesters no longer requiring the large house in Tigard, they moved to South Burlingame neighborhood in Portland.
In late 2010, Jim's health began to decline rapidly, forcing him to retire from Schmitt Ind., ending a 22 year professional relationship, leaving a job he enjoyed immensely. He passed away, peacefully, on the afternoon of December 18th, 2010.