James Pelletier, born Philip James Pelletier and known to all as Jim, passed away of natural causes on September 25, at his home in Sandy Hook.

Jim was born to Aurelie and Edmond Pelletier in the town of Eagle Lake, Maine, on March 28, 1931. He was the youngest of three children and faced some serious health issues as a child, namely a case of polio and a broken leg as a result of a horse-riding accident. The Pelletier family moved to Billerica, Mass., while Jim was still quite young, and it was during this period that he became a devoted Red Sox and stadium hot dog fan. While the family lived in Billerica, Jim’s older brother and father both enlisted in the Navy at the onset of World War II. The family was lucky enough to see the two of them return home safely after the war ended and they relocated to Sandy Hook when Jim was 16.

Jim attended high school at the Hawley School and was a member of the school’s baseball and football teams. It was during this period that Jim purchased a used Indian motorcycle that he fixed up with the help of some of his friends. His then-beloved motorcycle only lasted until he met his wife, Dorothy.

Jim met Dorothy Walsh while he was working at a gas station across from the Blue Colony Diner on Church Hill Road. (He recounted this story in a letter to The Newtown Bee that was printed in 2014, “The Gas Station and The Memory, 1950.”) She and a friend pulled up for gas, and after much deliberation Jim managed to work up the courage to ask her out on a date. The two hit it off immediately and were married within a year, on May 5, 1951, moving to Bridgeport to begin their lives together. Dorothy was adamant that the motorcycle had to go and Jim begrudgingly obliged.

In the early 1950s Jim began apprenticing as a carpenter and the couple eventually moved back to Sandy Hook to build their own house on the hill behind his parents’ home on Riverside Road. Jim built this house mostly by himself and did so after long and grueling days at work, a feat he would repeat over and over again not only for he and his wife, but for their extended family as well. It was not “all work and no play” for the young Pelletier couple though — the two purchased a speed boat and enjoyed waterskiing on Lake Zoar throughout the 1950s, in addition to becoming avid square dancers.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Jim started his own contracting business, a venture that proved to be very successful and ultimately allowed the couple to build a larger house on the other side of town. They welcomed their two children, Mark and Joyce, into their lives and managed to build a modest vacation home in Vermont shortly thereafter. Toward the end of the 1970s and after a series of on-the-job accidents (and a couple of projects for which he did not receive payment), Jim finally decided that it was time to close up shop.

The 1980s saw the addition of three grandchildren and Jim’s burgeoning interest in gardening. He was involved in the construction of the Union Carbide campus and the Sears wing of the Danbury Fair Mall, before taking a job with Morganti and eventually retiring in the 1990s.

Throughout his life Jim was a longstanding member of the Knights of Columbus and a parishioner at St Rose of Lima Church in Newtown.

Jim’s family remembers him as an extraordinarily generous and loyal spirit, one who would do just about anything to help out his family. As Jim and Dorothy grew older, they enjoyed going to tag sales, the Elephant’s Trunk, state fairs, and traveling around New England. The couple were heavily invested in the lives of their grandchildren, and Jim never missed a game or performance that they were in. He enjoyed listening to music by artists such as Elvis, John Denver, The Bee Gees, and Neil Diamond, and loved to watch westerns. Jim and Dorothy were both animal lovers and routinely donated to the ASPCA. In his retirement he enjoyed television shows such as 24 and Dexter, and at one point his oldest grandson caught him watching the horror-comedy Army of Darkness on HBO.

Jim was predeceased by his loving wife of 70 years, Dorothy Pelletier, and his brother, Edmond Pelletier.

He is survived by his two children, Mark Pelletier and Joyce Pelletier; three grandchildren, Michael Henss, David Henss, and Stephanie Henss; two great-grandchildren, Kyrah Torrez and Tauriel Torrez; and his sister, Pamela Choquette.

Jim’s services will be held at 11 am on September 29, at St Rose Church, 46 Church Hill Road.