James Alexander McNish

Jim McNish died Nov. 1, 2022 at home in Geneva, Illinois after a short illness that he faced with characteristic grace and poise.

James Alexander McNish was born April 11, 1931 in Victoria, B.C. the son of Alec and Jessie McNish. He was the eldest of three children, followed by Gordon (Christine) and Heather (Bill).

When World War II loomed, the family returned to Jessie’s clan in Scotland following Alec McNish’s transfer as a Canadian soldier overseas. Jim’s lasting memory of that tense time was escaping Liverpool as bombs fell, sinking a nearby ship on a convoy protected by navy escorts. To the intrepid 9-year-old the aerial fireworks and survival of remaining ships was a thrilling validation of Britain’s military prowess.

Jim was an early entrepreneur, starting as a boy “newsie,” in Victoria competing with sharp-elbowed competitors barking out newspaper headlines to attract customers. The experience taught him two things: the power of optimism and the importance of counting pennies, because pennies was all he earned.

He financed tuition for an engineering degree at the University of British Columbia working on crews building power line towers along the province’s rugged north coast.  The experience nurtured a life-long love of mountain climbing and nature’s untamed corners. An Athlone Fellowship later took him to Britain, where he graduated with a post-graduate business degree from the London School of Economics.

A more fulfilling overseas achievement was his marriage in London to Diana Crane, a fellow non-conformist and British Columbian. Demonstrating the charm and pluck that defined his life, Jim sealed the deal by offering Diana a not-so-glittering engagement ring plucked from a Crackerjack box.

A job offer from General Electric in Peterborough, Ontario took Jim and Diana back to Canada, starting a career that took the family to Illinois, New York, Oakville, Ontario and finally Geneva, Illinois in the 1970s. Jim prepared his daughters, Jacquie (Stephen), Cathie (deceased), Michelle (Scott) and Rachael (Kelly), for life’s hard knocks by challenging them in contact football scrimmages and long wilderness hikes, during which he often dangled a rope over a cliff and talked them up daunting rock faces.

 Jim rose quickly through management ranks at G.E. and later Keene Corp., but ultimately realized he wasn’t a company man. After two attempts to acquire company divisions from Keene, his bosses, he often said, did him a great favor. They fired him. For Jim, the setback was an opportunity that allowed him to parlay his severance into the acquisition in 1980 of a majority stake in Ohio-based E&I Corp.  A few years later he acquired control of American Well Works Co. and then Walker Process Equipment, creating a trio of businesses that engineer and manufacture large clarifier tanks and other equipment for wastewater and waste treatment.  When Jim visited pungent sewage treatment sites he was known to take a deep breath and declare: “Ah, the smell of money.”

In 1993 Jim took on another challenge: improving court and police interactions with the mentally ill. Motivated by daughter Cathie’s mental health struggles, Jim helped found the Kane-South, DeKalb and Kendall counties division of The National Alliance on Mental Illness. His leadership over 25 years contributed to the creation of alternative courts for the mentally ill and crisis intervention training for local police officers.

Jim’s legacy lives on through his daughters; grandchildren, Lindsay (Austin), Alexander (Jessica), Harry (Jasmine), Lewis, Brianna, Brogan, Ruth (Sam), Abraham, Eve; and great-grandchildren, Mikayla, Oliver and Adalynn.

The McNish family plans a celebration of Jim’s life at a later date. For those wishing to express sympathies, the family would greatly appreciate a donation to the Jim McNish Fund at the Kane-South, DeKalb and Kendall counties division of The National Alliance on Mental Illness  https://www.namikdk.org/james-mcnish-fund