James Luther Booker, 77, of Iola (formerly of Eddy, Texas) passed away suddenly on February 11, 2019.
James (Jim) was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Marie (Crownover) Booker; his parents, James William and Aileen Elizabeth (Huffman) Booker of Brownwood, Texas; and brother, Robert Wayne. He is survived by his three children, son Eric (Sue) Booker, daughter Alisa Barth, daughter Katie (Jon) Simonsen, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild; special friend, Jeanne Tschurwald.
Jim was born December 7, 1941 in Brownwood, Texas on what is now known as Pearl Harbor Day thus beginning his lifelong fascination of WW2 and history in general. He learned to read library books by the Colorado river near Goldthwaite, TX when he was three (true story) and his love of reading never ceased. He graduated from Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s from Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX, and his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. He had a full and varied career including analyzing moon rocks for the Apollo mission, serving as Professor at Stanislaus State University in Turlock, California, forensic scientist at the Bureau of Forensic Services in Sacramento, California before serving as director of the Wyoming Crime lab. He moved his family to Wisconsin in 1980 and continued his work as a research scientist for Kimberly Clark and James River, Corp, later returning to his beloved home state of Texas where he established his own consulting business specializing in forensic toxicology. Despite all his professional accomplishments and his love of science, his greatest source of pride was his family. He and Marie were always active in the church, as well as the Gideons International for many years. His unending generosity, humor, biting sarcasm and unmatched intelligence and wit will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.
Visitation was held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 16 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Iola, WI. Service began at 11:00 a.m. and was followed by fellowship and light lunch. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Union of Concerned Scientists (ucsusa.org), or consider sponsoring the adoption of a cat at your local humane society.