Remembering James E. Thornton (1927-2023)
Jim Thornton died August 5, 2023; he was living in Arbutus Ridge, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Jim was 95 years old.
Jim Thornton was born in the USA but spent most of his life in British Columbia and became a Canadian citizen in 2018. He received his MA (1967) and PhD (1972) in Adult Education from the University of Michigan. From 1969 until his retirement in 1992, Jim taught in the Department of Administrative, Adult and Higher Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). For many years, Jim was the Coordinator of the University-wide Gerontology Committee, working to bring gerontological curricula to UBC. His research interests concerned the impact of educational, social and economic programs on the development and well-being of the older adult.
Jim T. met James E. Birren in 1979 when Jim and Betty Birren were recipients of the Cecil and Ida Green Visiting Professorship, at UBC. Jim T. and Jim B. became fast and lifelong friends, staying at one another’s homes when traveling either in British Columbia or Southern California and reconnecting at gerontology conferences around the world. Jim Thornton kept all of his correspondence with Jim Birren from 1989 to 2016 and it is now part of the archive collection at UBC.
Jim T. and Jim B. co-hosted several conferences at UBC, focusing on topics from metaphors of aging to aging and biography. In 1986, Jim Thornton participated in a Guided Autobiography workshop Dr. Birren offered and soon collaborated with Jim T. on Guided Autobiography workshops, research articles and more.
Bridging his ongoing interests in lifelong learning with the Guided Autobiography, Jim developed the theme “my life as a learner” which he and others used in dozens of Guided Autobiography workshops.
Further putting into personal action what he taught, Jim Thornton wrote and published his own memoir: Telling My Life Story - A journey of discovery, his autobiography 2012. Jim also encouraged his colleagues to write the story of their careers; he felt there was much to be memorialized and learned through both the writing and reading of these autobiographies.
Jim was a prolific researcher and proponent of transformational learning and Guided Autobiography.
He will be missed by his colleagues and his influence will continue through his writings and his profound impact on several generations of scholars.