James Richards

Jim was born on March 17, 1938, in Surrey, England, to Gladys E. and Bertram R. Money. The family moved to London in the early spring of 1940. One year into WWII, the city was bombed for 57 consecutive nights by the German Luftwaffe, and on every occurrence the family had to seek safety in air raid shelters. As soon as he was able, his father moved Gladys and Jim to a safer location on a farm in the English countryside. After the war, and because of his father’s job as a civil engineer, Jim moved constantly, and by the time he was ten, he’d attended seven different schools.

When he was twelve, the family immigrated to Ontario, Canada, where Jim was finally able to have a more stable life. He learned to drive tractors and was hired by neighboring farmers to help in the fields. His deep love of trains began from the first time he heard a locomotive roar past his house. He fished, hunted, and hiked the woods and thought he was the luckiest kid alive. In high school, he was drum player for a dance band he assembled, and the group often played at local gatherings. After graduating from high school, and because of his love of popular music, he was hired as a disc jockey at the local radio station. But eventually he wanted to expand his horizons and sought work elsewhere. When an offer came to work at a radio station in Bermuda, he didn’t think twice. Pulling up stakes, he changed his last name to Richards, and began his new job as a disc jockey, producer, and writer, focusing on his favorite musical genre, jazz. He talked his employers into assignments that piqued his interest, which broadened the scope of his duties. Among other ventures, he recorded conversations with jet pilots from the local airfield and talked them into taking him aloft on their training flights. He also finagled trips to Seattle, Washington, to conduct interviews at the World’s Fair. Other assignments followed, and after experiencing a world much larger and more varied than Bermuda, he moved to New York City to begin a career in advertising at Benton & Bowles and J. Walter Thompson. Craving an even more satisfying and adventurous life, he moved back to England and began solidifying plans to sail around the world, a dream from an early age.

Deciding to start his sailing odyssey from Sydney, Australia, he purchased a second-hand Land Rover, outfitted it to withstand the rigors of off-road travel, joined a caravan of six vehicles, and drove from London to South Africa – a journey of 6 months. After many fascinating and sometimes harrowing experiences, he arrived at Cape Town and sailed to Perth on the west coast of Australia. Next, he drove through the outback, Australia’s “Red Center,” and arrived in Sydney covered with dust and ready for his next adventure.
Then Jim’s life took an unexpected turn. Instead of sailing around the world as planned, he started down a different path. At the time of his arrival, Australian television was transitioning from black and white to color. Due to the knowledge gained from his experiences in the U.S., he was sought after to direct commercials using this new technology. Initially he worked for several advertising agencies but then formed his own company, Challenges Accepted – so named because he was willing to take on seemingly impossible assignments. In addition to Australia, his projects took him to Europe, the U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, England, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand. Challenges Accepted, which Jim ran for 15 years, became Australia’s leading production house. Eventually he decided to return to the U.S., a place he loved and considered to be his true home, working in New York City and Los Angeles. Fulfilling yet another dream, he obtained his U.S. citizenship.

After 25 years as a director, creating over 1,600 commercials and receiving over 150 awards for his cutting-edge and trend-setting commercials, Jim decided it was time to retire and to look for a place to spend the rest of his life. Three years of searching brought no satisfaction until he and his wife, Jean, drove into Durango one autumn afternoon, and with a mutual sigh of relief, realized that they had found the perfect spot.

From the age of ten, Jim had imagined a place where he’d like to live – a mountain home overlooking a valley and backed by pine trees. With his Challenges Accepted spirit and enthusiasm, he eventually found that location in Durango’s Animas Valley. For the next ten years, he and Jean landscaped the property and created the home of their dreams. He built a world-class model railroad in the basement. In the studio above, he wrote The Road to Narromine about his experiences flying sailplanes on the edge of the Australian outback. Jim also wrote “The Grammar Police,” a humorous blog where he vented his annoyance and frustration over the ignorance and misuse of the English language – he hoped to educate his readers as a side effect.

In addition to all the above, Jim was a prize-winning model builder; a pastel and pen & ink artist; an avid reader; a jazz aficionado; a raconteur; an open-water scuba diver; a sailor; a runner; and a mountain biker.
Full of hopes, dreams and plans for the future, Jim was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer the first week of 2016. On March 19th he passed away in the home he loved, with Jean by his side. This amazing man will be deeply missed by his many friends and acquaintances from Colorado and around the world.

He is survived by his wife, Jean Richards of Durango; his son, Linn (Kat) Money of Sydney, Australia; his daughter, Christine (Robin) Miller of Ontario, Canada; and granddaughter Madeleine Miller.

There will be a celebration of Jim’s life in the near future, when the trees in the Animas Valley are bursting with bright new foliage, a sight that brought joy to his heart.