theLAKER | 5 A steenbok and African bush elephant were among the plentiful wildlife students saw from the open-air truck. The car to Florida Lucky for Kathy, travel courses are not limited to certain majors. She was studying human services but had heard so much about the conservation trip to the Florida Everglades. “My brother went on the trip with his girlfriend in ’75, and they got to go scuba diving and snorkeling all over the coral reefs. I thought it would be great,” she says. She had seen Jim around campus, but they hadn’t spoken until she found herself in a car with him and two other students. “I thought he was hilarious. He was constantly doing limericks and stuff like that.” “I was chasing some other girl,” Jim admits. She was in a different car, also headed to Florida. After they got back to FLCC, Jim and Kathy started seeing more of each other. “It was a few weeks later, and the girl he was interested in on the trip –” Kathy begins. “ – she wasn’t interested in me,” Jim says. Jim convinced Kathy to join the logging sports team, called the woodsmen at the time. She embraced it and earned a spot on the men’s B team. Jim was captain of the men’s A team. For many years as alumni, they were scorekeeper and head judge at home meets to help out Marty Dodge. Marty, now professor emeritus, taught conservation and coached the woodsmen from the team’s inception in 1974 until his retirement in 2011. “I loved Marty,” Kathy begins. “He was so encouraging and always bringing out the best in people,” Jim says. “He was smart. He had the skills and the knowledge and was so inspiring.” A life together Kathy and Jim competed as lumberjacks for a few years after graduation in 1978. They married in 1982. Jim had an associate degree in natural resources conservation. He had taken several classes associated with the conservation law-enforcement degree and earned A’s in his Criminal Law and Law of Evidence classes. After a series of odd jobs, he had a chance to join Yates County as a corrections officer. “They were paying twice as much as I ever made in my life,” he recalls. The other officers were planning to take the state trooper exam, so Jim did, too. He passed and began a 31-year career with the New York State Police, six years as a patrol trooper and 25 years as a sergeant. For many years he was a training officer for numerous courses, mainly firearms training. Kathy worked for an electronics manufacturer, which covered her tuition for engineering courses at FLCC. While back in school, she also finished up a conservation degree and an environmental studies certificate.
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