Obituary

James “Jimmy” Shirai, 75 died on December 7, 2012 at Alaska Native Medical Center from complications of a stroke suffered on November 30, 2012.

He was born on June 1, 1939 in Ketchikan, Alaska to Harvey and Minnie Eshanclan Shirai. Jimmy was a Raven from the Kids.adi people of Wrangell.

He went to Wrangell Institute as a young man and lived with his great-aunt and uncle, Alice and John Joseph. His adopted family were Jim and Edith Stevens and he loved his siblings, Harvey Shirai , (Audrey) and children Benjamin and Angela, and his sister Rachel Petersen, (Carl), and his nephews, Mike, Tommy and David Burns.

Jimmy was a fisherman by trade and a scholar by heart. He could be seen at the public library reading newspapers and any book on the world and its wars. “Jimmy wants war” was one of his favorite quips. He lived in Wrangell from the time he was sixteen. He fished on many boats out of Wrangell and Sitka.

When Lawrence Bahovec sold the Aurora Marie, Jimmy got a place of his own in Wrangell for the very first time. He had a stroke in 2007 he had to use a cane and it slowed him down. He loved going to garage sales, sightseeing, collecting knives, radios and flashlights.

The sight of Jimmy and his familiar red and black plaid jacket, baseball cap, cane and twinkling black eyes will be missed very much by all of his friends and acquaintances in Wrangell.

He was preceded in death by his parents, cousins, Mike Loftus and Percy Atkinson and great-aunt and uncle, John and Alice Joseph, and cousins Jones and Morgan Joseph and Edna Wright.

A service will be held at the Episcopal Church on Saturday, January 12 at 1 p.m.