James Walter "Jim" Lambert went peacefully to sleep and left this life October 25, 2013.
He was born September 15, 1934 at the family home near Iaeger, West Virginia. Two months before, across the river, his future wife Janet had been born. Both families soon left the area and both returned when Jim and Janet were in Jr. High School. The basketball player and the cheerleader became friends at Iaeger High School. After graduation they went away to different schools. They were married in 1954. Many years later in 2001 Jim was invited to return to the Iaeger school to be the Commencement Speaker. He spoke to a class several times larger than his own had been. He challenged them to be proud of where they came from , thankful to those who had nourished them and supported them to this point in their lives. He said they should now look to a future they would determine themselves. He mentioned to them how important his faith and Christian friends had been to his life as he carved out that future for himself.
In 1954 Jim used his acquired business knowledge for his new job at Southern States Cooperative. He was to spend his entire career of 45 years with this one company. His first position was as a bookkeeper in the Feed Mill at Roanoke Va. He soon was hired to work from Richmond as an auditor for retail stores in WVa and Va. This job gave Jim travel experience and then led him to be hired as Assistant Manager for the Huntington West Virginia operation.
Jim worked in Huntington for several years while three sons were born. The company began a Service Training Department and Jim was hired for this job which required much travel throughout the whole 5 state company territory. For this position the family again located in Roanoke. Jim was to become familiar with all retail and wholesale operations and had a wide acquaintance with people employed with Southern States.
He learned the company's Business Model and what made it successful. Wanting to be sure he would keep current business skills sharp in the coming years he continued to take classes, seminars and workshops. He studied with Syracuse University, Virginia Tech, William and Mary and many National Management Groups.
With several years of experience in the complete Southern States territory he became familiar with all products and merchandizing for them. He was hired in 1969 to work from the home office and Jim and the family moved to Richmond where he spent the rest of his career.
This move placed Jim in a position to work in purchasing and merchandizing. For this challenge in 1972 he began a Product Show for the entire company. Vendors were invited to bring their products to one place and the stores throughout the system would send their buyers to view and order products for their stores. He conducted this show for 30 years and today there are 1400 vendors attending. For many years he was in charge of purchasing Farm And Home products for all 600 stores. He continued to do this and manage a changing number of inventory and merchandizing staff.
After his retirement in 2000 he continued with study projects for SS while they were adding Agway and Gold Kist Companies to their family. He became a consultant and sometimes sales Rep for Universal Cooperative based in Minneapolis, Minn. He continued in this position until his death.
A loyal member of the Tuckahoe Kiwanis for many years he was several times named Kiwanian of the year
Busy as he was, Jim was always an involved father for his sons. Whatever the activities of the boys, he worked to be there and often planned summer trips to suit their activities. The family travelled from Florida for swim meets to California for scuba diving. He taught his sons to build decks, porches, walls, gazeboes and helped them build a backyard rock pool. As the boys left home Jim and Janet carried on their love of travel to see God's world. They visited a total of 45 countries seeing the Great Wall of China, Moscow Square, the canals of Venice and safaris in Africa. Their last trip in 2011 was a trip to Israel with Christian friends.
Jim has been a loyal Christ Follower and Member of Bon Air Baptist Church since 1969 with many of those years being a Deacon.
Preceding him in death were his parents, Herbert and Addie Lambert, one brother Robert and sisters, Arlene Watson, Maxine Morgan, and Lois Whitt. One sister, Alice Tramel survives. Also surviving is Janet, his wife of 59 years, sons, David of Jacksonville, Florida, Mark and wife Dale of Chester, Va., and Paul and wife Martha of Rockville, Va. Very precious to Jim in his later years are his three grandchildren, Ginna, living in South Korea and Michael and Jessica living with their parents.