Jim Stone passed away Wednesday, March 28, 2018 in the arms of his beloved daughter, Tonya, at Porter Hospice in Denver, Colorado. He was born September 16th, 1946, to Alberta and James Vincent Albertano in Ogden Utah.

Jim Stone was a poet and a professor. He lived his life as a cowboy, a marine, a carpenter and a rodeo bronc-rider. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Washington, with a degree in Social Justice, he accepted a Sociology professorship at Jamestown University in North Dakota.

He was a warm and generous husband, father, and teacher who has been much admired, beloved and deeply cherished by those who encountered his compelling honesty, as well as his ever present wisdom, wit and kindness.

He was a true Westerner, from the backbone of the Rocky Mountains, to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Born in Ogden, Utah, he’s lived, ranch-handed, worked, studied and taught in Colorado, Montana, California, Washington and North Dakota. During his tenure in Venice Beach, CA, he designed and built stunning backyards with gazebos, raised-bed gardens and fanciful fences… a talent he later transplanted to the home he shared with his wife, Lonnie, in Jamestown, ND. He also used his technical skills to help bring art performances to life around Los Angeles, including Barnsdall Theater in the famed Art Park in Hollywood.

At Jamestown University, he created and headed the Department of Criminal Justice eventually serving as Vice President for 5 years, though teaching was his true passion as he was voted “Professor of the Year.” One of his students said of him, “The most admirable part of his teaching style is his willingness to share the experience of his life with all his raw veracity; he does not hold back his shortcomings or his triumphs. And in accepting his own faults, he allows students to do the same. So, while he is a professor of the rarest kind, he is also a human being of the rarest kind.”

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife Lonnie.

He is survived by two sisters, Peggy Stone and Linda J. Albertano and nephew, Damian Stone; two daughters, Tonya Krueger and her husband Tim and Emily Stone; and three grandchildren, Matthew Stone, Kya Krueger and Kael Krueger.