I first met Jim when he came to the Institute of Astronomy in 1986 as a postdoc after completing his PhD at Mt. Stromlo under Ken Freeman, and worked closely with him over the majority of the intervening years. Jim was involved in many projects including data reduction pipelines for the WYFFOS spectrograph on the WHT; the Wide Field Camera on the INT; which led to the development of the VISTA Data Flow System for processed images taken with WFCAM on UKIRT, VIRCAM on VISTA and OmegaCam on the VST; and latterly on the deployment and development of the Gaia-ESO, WEAVE and 4MOST spectroscopic data analysis systems. He was also responsible for the development of the La Palma data archive system and the Cambridge Astronomical Data Centre.

In addition Jim also worked closely with ESO on a series of in-kind projects to develop end-to-end processing pipelines for VIMOS and HAWKI. These were applied, with much cursing, to all existing ESO archive data for these instruments. His colleagues at ESO recalled his great abilities in the intricacies of software design, his friendliness and willingness to help, his patience, and his sense of humour. They commented that he was always very dedicated and approachable and that working with Jim was never a chore, but always a privilege.

Jim was also an avid attendee of the ADASS conferences over many years and a keen member of the Program Organising Committee for 14 continuous years, a record. Jim loved taking a full part in ADASS gatherings and was heartbroken when due to ill health he had to miss one meeting and lose his coveted “Friends of Betty” gold star. One of his many contributions to ADASS was to lead the organisation of the 2007 ADASS conference held in London. This was the conference when, to Jim's amusement, Pete Bunclark demonstrated his forthright views on Java with Will O'Mullane late at night after the banquet. Pete got so animated that he fell backwards off his chair because he thought Java so bad!

Jim was a wonderful human being and a great colleague. We will remember him not only for his incredible depth of knowledge, but also for his wonderful personality, quick wit and his keen jovial sense of humour, together with his ability to quote whole passages of Fawlty Towers without pause. We are grateful to have had him as our colleague and friend and we miss him dearly, as we know many whose lives he touched do.

Jim had been suffering from cancer for many years, but in spite of his periods of ill health he was always determined to continue working on all the projects he was involved in and did so up to a few days before he died on Easter Sunday, 21st April 2019. Jim is buried in the churchyard at St. Mary's in Hardwick, resting peacefully in the middle of the community he was a major part of.

— Mike Irwin