James B. Carothers passed away on July 9, 2024 in Lawrence, KS. Jim was born in St. Louis, MO on June 21, 1942 to Barrett and Eva Carothers. Jim was an Eagle Scout and attended national jamborees at Valley Forge and Colorado. After graduating from Southwest High School, he attended the University of Missouri where he received a BA and MA in English. Jim was president of his fraternity Delta Tau Delta, a leader in student government, and organizer of MU’s ‘World’s Fair’ raising funds for scholarships. He first met Beverly Wendel on a blind date while at Mizzou. After marrying, they moved to Charlottesville, VA where Jim earned a PhD at the University of Virginia with a dissertation on William Faulkner’s short stories.
In 1970 they moved to Lawrence and Jim began his 46-year career at the University of Kansas as a professor of English. Generations of Jayhawks remember Jim welcoming them to KU during orientation and Traditions Night, assisting them in the Help Room during enrollment, and congratulating them during hooding and graduation ceremonies. The accolades he cherished the most concerned his teaching and advising including the Chancellor’s Club Career Teaching Award.
Jim’s teaching focused on modern American fiction (from Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald to American Humor), Shakespeare, and an array of Honors courses. Two favorite courses which he developed included the ‘Literature of Baseball’ and ‘Honors: Comedy and Humor’. Beyond the classroom, he served twelve years in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as Associate Dean, as well as in the Provost’s Office and the Honors Program. Jim further served the university as President of Faculty four times, through myriad committees, and as a football statistician with a cadre of English professors for over 25 years.
Like his teaching, Jim’s research focused on Faulkner, Hemingway, and American Humor. He first attended the University of Mississippi’s Faulkner Conference in 1979 and participated in each following year. He was a founding editor of the Faulkner Journal, authored two books on Faulkner’s Collected Short Stories, and looked forward to leading the annual ‘Teaching Faulkner’ sessions.
Jim found creative ways to combine his interests on topics from Hemingway and baseball in Faulkner to the American Hero and even Dave Barry. Jim lectured and gave papers from Beijing and Cairo to Mumbai and Oslo, from Cooperstown and West Point to Amsterdam and Bergen, from Ronda and Pamplona in Spain to Rome, Stresa, and Venice in Italy. Following retirement, Jim continued his Faulkner research through the Digital Yoknapatawpha project enabling educators to introduce new readers to Mr. Faulkner and his ‘Postage Stamp of Native Soil.’ Jim’s love of baseball and humor were constants throughout his life. He played first base and wore number 6 in honor of Cardinal Stan ‘The Man’ Musial, introducing his wife to the game with a sunny double-header in St. Louis and teaching each family member to keep score. Jim played many seasons of church league softball with the Plymouth ‘Rocks,’ and for 50 years he played the tabletop baseball game ‘Ballpark’ on Monday nights. Fellow members of Plymouth Congregational Church will remember Jim as parliamentarian at annual meetings, deacon, and St. Nick. Always with a joke on hand, little Jimmy learned the power of humor in first grade when his teacher sent him to the principal’s office for wiggling his ears. Instead of disciplining him, the principal laughed and asked: ‘How do you DO that?’
Jim is survived by his wife of 63 years, Beverly; daughter, Cathleen; son, Michael (Karmel); grandson, Nicholas; granddaughter, Kelsey (Charlie) Bernard; and great-grandson, Bentley Bernard. Perhaps his most enduring legacy to his family is the solace of a good story with the enduring philosophy of the Silly ol’ Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the KU Honors Program for study abroad (via KU Endowment at kuendowment.org). A Celebration of Life will take place at Plymouth Congregational Church on Thursday October 24 at 3 p.m.