James Joseph Kane
- Published: October 9, 2025
James Joseph Kane, 96, was a New York City native and the only child of Veronica (Parrell) and Francis Kane. Veronica died in 1931, and Jimmy was lucky to be taken in by cousins Adelaide (Owens) and Walter Gaffney and their daughter, Dorothy, until he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1947 and served three years in the Army Security Agency.
Jim used and appreciated the GI Bill of Rights to earn his BS degree from Upsala College in 1954. In 1960, he earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University with considerable financial help and support from the state of Ohio. In 1964, Jim ended his first job as a research chemist with the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware, to help establish the OSU branch campus in Dayton, Ohio. He served as the first Chemistry Department chair and then as teaching and research faculty and occasional consultant for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Jim was proud and honored to have been a part in the growth and development of that branch campus into Wright State University.
Before retiring from WSU in 1994, Jim earned an MS degree in mental health counseling and started a five-year training program in Gestalt psychology at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Jim practiced counseling at John P. Layh, Ph.D., and Associates in Yellow Springs, Ohio, for the next 15 years, before he and his wife, Peg, moved to Fort Collins, Colorado. Three years later they moved to Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, North Carolina, to be a part of that unique community and closer to the North Carolina seashore. Jim loved the ocean, skiing and dogs of all kinds.
Jim was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Dorothy. He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, Margaret (Peg) Kane, and his dear nieces, Mary Beatty (Ben Beatty), of New Carlisle, Ohio; Caryl Philips, of Dayton, Ohio, and Wellington, Florida; and Jane Ronemus, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Donations may be made in Jim’s name to Hospice of Dayton.
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