It is with great sadness that the family of James Harold Wimer, 89, of Weaverville, N.C., announce that he died Jan. 21, 2025, in Bridgeport, W. Va. of heart failure.
Born November 24, 1935, at home in Crawford in the community of Straight Fork, W. Va., James was the son of Irene Mae Mick and William Harold Wimer. He graduated from Buckhannon-Upshur High School in 1953 and from West Virginia Wesleyan College, with a degree in business administration, three years later. Jim married his high school sweetheart Imogene Ann Moss in 1957, and they moved to Bridgeport, W. Va.
In 1961, James, who was a member of the West Virginia National Guard, was called up for active duty during the Berlin Crisis and spent a year stationed in Maryland, where he served in the U.S. Army Financial Command.
After college, Jim began working for Union Carbide Corporation in Anmoore, W. Va. before being transferred to corporate headquarters in New York City in 1968. At the time, he was the youngest executive to be sent to headquarters. During this period, Union Carbide was a Fortune 50 company.
Because of his transfer to New York City, Jim and Imogene resettled in Westport, Conn., where they raised their two children. Both Jim and Imogene were dedicated members of the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, where they were lay leaders during the 1970s and 80s.
Like many men of the Silent Generation, Jim worked for the same company for more than 40 years. He commuted daily by train from Westport to New York City until 1982, when Union Carbide moved its headquarters to Danbury, Conn. He regretted that he had to drive to work, because he could no longer read four newspapers a day on the train.
Jim ended his career as comptroller of the UCAR Carbon Company, which had been spun off from the Carbon Products Division of Union Carbide. Before retiring, he was part of a group of executives that explored investment opportunities for UCAR in Europe and Asia. Some of his fondest memories of work were the international business trips he took during this period.
In 1999, after he retired, Jim and Imogene left Connecticut and moved to Weaverville, N.C., a suburb of Asheville. Twelve years later, Imogene predeceased Jim. He remained in Weaverville, where he had several close friends, and where he was an active member of the Weaverville United Methodist Church. A few months before he died, Jim returned to Bridgeport, W. Va. to be near family. He stayed at Elison Assisted Living of Maplewood in Bridgeport.
Jim was a longtime member of The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, where he held the 33rd Degree of the brotherhood. Although he left West Virginia when he was 32, Jim always remained a member of the Straight Fork United Methodist Church. Not only was it the church of his childhood, but it was also where he was married, and his children were baptized.
James is survived by two children and their spouses, Ronald Eric Wimer and Peggy Mevs of Westport, CT; and Brenda Ann DeMattio and Philip Dalmage of Lake Forest, Ill.; and six grandchildren: David, Nicholas, S.J., and Peter DeMattio, and Gabrielle and Maximilian Wimer. He also is survived by his sister, Wanda Imogene Wimer, 97, of Crawford, W. Va.
A celebration of his life will be held at a future date at the Straight Fork United Methodist Church, where his ashes will be interred in the Wimer Cemetery.
The family thanks the nurses and staff of Elison Assisted Living of Maplewood for the kind care they gave James during the last few months of his life.
