01/19/2026
Sitting here on a blustery day thinking about all the LHS teachers and alumni that have touched so many lives and warmed so many hearts. We lost one this past December when Jim Wood passed away on December 5th. Jim was 90 and lived a full life with his beautiful family and shared his many talents with the Lakeview community.
Jim wasn’t born in Michigan but after his family moved to Lakeview, he fully embraced and immersed himself in the community. He graduated in 1953 and after serving our country in the Korean War came back and started teaching in 1961. Over his 37-year career, he impacted many students’ lives by embedding lifelong math skills in his own unique way. In addition to teaching, he coached the varsity baseball teams and 8th grade basketball teams. In both capacities, he enriched the lives of hundreds of students.
He is warmly remembered for his big personality and for teaching fundamental life skills in math, map reading and engagement. Jon Comden remembers how everyone in his 9th grade math class had to memorize the multiplication and division tables up to 12x12. Jon noted that this was a simple life skill that he used his whole career.
Bruce Ball (LHS Class of ’79) continues to use the trigonometry that Jim taught him over 45 years ago in his work today – just doen’t use his slide rule. Although calculators were available to students in the mid-to late 1970s, Jim would never allow his students to use them because he did not think that they were conducive to learning trig in the same way that slide rules were. Bruce also has fond memories of Jim’s Analytical Geometry field trip to Durdle Hill near Entrican where students were required to apply their trigonometry skills to calculate the height of a radio tower located there.
Teaching more than just the dry words (or formulas) in a textbook, Jim would challenge students to live up to their full potential, even when the students weren’t so sure they even had any to live up to. His “Time for Fun in the Sun” sessions in class could be momentarily terrifying but always informative and memorable. While he often put students on the spot in his classroom, it made them do their homework so that there were prepared for their day “in the sun.” Beth (Walter) Hannabass (LHS ’79) dreaded hearing the words—Ms. Walter! Time for Fun in the Sun! She always thought it was punishment for talking too much. She also fondly remembers Jim explaining things other than math in his class like the cause of the Vietnam war or indentured servitude. In this way, Jim was also an informal history teacher.
In addition to teaching and coaching, one of the most heartwarming things Jim did was to go out of his way to recognize all area veterans and particularly those who were LHS alumni. He established an LHS veterans “trophy case” to display a list of the names of all LHS alumni who have served in the military—over 1,300+. Jim coordinated this effort with Terry Helms (LHS ’75) who makes and places each name in the veteran’s case.
He was very active with the VFW and served as the Lakeview post commander for several years. He would go out of his way to connect with veterans and their families, letting them know they were remembered and that their service truly mattered. He sent a very powerful message to families that sincerely helped them heal in so many cases. And he was always present at the various Veteran’s Day ceremonies regardless of the weather, with a helmet on his head and a trumpet in his hands. He would make sure that everyone remembered the sacrifice of all Lakeview veterans who served, particularly Private Wortley, a Lakeview area resident who fought (Company E, 26th Infantry) in France during WW 1. Private Wortley was killed in action on July. 19th, 1918 in France and has a grave marker in the Lakeview cemetery. Jim Wood made sure that Private Wortley’s sacrifice was never forgotten.
The LHS Alumni Association and LHS Alumni Scholarship Steering Committee are grateful for all that Mr. Wood did to contribute to the success of his many students.
