Written memories of time spent and cherished with
Jim Rich
Jim's Story
Jim was born in Rexburg Idaho in 1950. His family later moved to Salt Lake City where he lived with his family of nine and grandma in a 2500 square foot home until he married Joanne in 1977. Attending East High he was a student body officer, lettered in baseball, football and wrestling, played the bassoon in both the school orchestra and later the Mormon Youth Symphony.
He began college at the U of U, majoring in mechanical engineering, later completing his masters degree. In the interim, he served a 2 year mission to Tahiti for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
Jim’s career took him to Chevron Oil in 1977, working at the Richmond California plant for 3 years. Upon moving back to Salt Lake he was hired at Hercules Baccus works, working there for around 13 years before taking employment at a local beverage company Marianni Inc. He worked there for several years until he found his way to The Dennis Group in 2000! Jim very much enjoyed the work and his associates at the Dennis Group and found fame at the company parties playing the SAW for after dinner entertainment!
Jim’s supreme joy was Joanne, their 5 children and 13 (to his death) grandchildren along with extended families. He loved his kids, participating with them through the years as they played sports, performed in school plays, served missions for the church and finally all married in the LDS temple. His favorite outdoor pastime was biking, the love of which shared with friends and passed along to his boys. Before he became ill he was also able to enjoy several amazing vacations with family and friends to Europe, Alaska, Canada, Hawaii and Mexico, where he especially enjoyed scuba diving with his five children.
He was a man without guile who enjoyed listening to others accomplishments and joys rather than boasting his own. He had deep faith and was always active and serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anyone who knew Jim, especially throughout his battle with ALS, new he was someone more concerned with others than himself, always willing to share his knowledge and treat others with fairness and kindness.
Joanne Rich
Time Well Spent
The first thing I recall when reminiscing about Jim is his smile. His gracious broad smile that made you feel like he was truly happy to see you, because he was. I never saw Jim in a bad mood because he truly loved people.
Two memorable times with Jim that were both on Project site visits. One was at a client dinner in Everet Washington. We had taken the client to dinner at a soup competitors’ restaurant, a fact that was not unnoticed by our guest. Oops number one. The second oops was when it came time to pick up the check. Jim had left his wallet in the car, which was a ridiculous walk to the parking lot, and I had left mine in the hotel safe. So, the client had to pick up the check. He was a good sport about it, saying that his company would have ended up paying for the meal either way – but a major embarrassment that Jim and I would recall for several years.
The second and probably most memorable time was sitting in a jobsite trailer after a sweaty day on the job and eating delivery pizza. Talking shop, family and politics and religion all in good faith and humor. His beaming smile still etched in my mind.
The is a very good reason that DG has the Jim Rich Mentor award. I’m sure many others can recant great stories to support this, I’ll share but one. In the old office at the Kerns Building in Salt Lake. I had only been with the company for a short time, maybe two years, but I had quickly learned that Jim always had the time to listen and offer good engineering reflection and direction. I can’t remember the project let alone the specific issue, but I remember walking into his office with the “got time for a question” look and he told me to have a seat.
As I started to lay out my question he asked me to hand him my reading glasses. With some hesitation I handed them to him, and he pulled out some spray and a wipe and proceeded to clean them for me. As he finished, I ended my question to him, and he pulled out a pad and together we proceeded to work through the problem. After he had finished, and I reviewed his work I said, “I think you’re right.” He smiled and said, “I know I’m right!”
The gist of all of this is that Jim would set aside his own work, sometimes at his own peril, to help others work through their work problems. For those of you that are fortunate enough to remember Jim, I am sure these memories are in some way familiar to you. For those of you that are younger and were never able to know him the way many of us did, I hope you understand the significance of the mentor award given to the few and its importance.
Anonymous colleague
A Dedicated Mentor
When I joined Dennis Group directly after graduating from college in 2011, Jim offered to be my mentor. At the time, I didn’t realize that I had lucked into one of the best mentors in the company. Jim stood out for his love of teaching and his deep understanding of the engineering principles behind his work. As one of the most knowledgeable engineers at Dennis Group, he was always busy yet made time to explain engineering design topics in thorough and sometimes excruciating detail. He was extremely kind in coaching engineers and genuinely wanted to help people understand the right way to do things. If Jim taught you something, you knew exactly how to do it going forward and could explain it to others. He was a master at developing talent within our organization.
I remember a time when Jim was working on a tight deadline to get a bid package out for a project. I had asked him for some pointers on sizing closed loop hydronic system expansion tanks. Most others would have directed me to a simplified blurb in the “HVAC Rules of Thumb” textbook, but Jim sat down and wrote out a step-by-step expansion tank sizing procedure complete with explanations, commentary, and an example problem. He didn’t have the time to do this, but he made the time anyway.
A funny memory I have with Jim occurred during my first job at Dennis Group for Schreiber Foods in Shippensburg, PA. I lived on the jobsite to act as Jim’s eyes and ears while he worked on several other large projects, but he joined me in the field on occasion. Jim and our piping contractor’s foreman, Randy, met to discuss a plan for running some piping for a hot water hydronic loop to heat yogurt batch tank jackets. I tried to shadow Jim whenever possible, so I listened in on their conversation on site. Jim was very engaged in the discussion, but I had difficulty understanding Randy due to his thick southern accent. As we walked back to the construction trailer, I asked Jim about the plan, explaining my difficulty understanding the conversation. I was surprised when a normally 100% buttoned-up Jim replied, “I have no idea what that guy said!” I later found out that Steve Guericke had affectionately nicknamed Randy “Marbles” because it sounded like he talked with marbles in his mouth.
When Jim had to retire early due to his ALS diagnosis, he continued to mentor me as I moved on to an exciting new project for Mueller Quaker Dairy in Batavia, NY. I visited him at his house several times during the design phase of the project, where he freely offered his expert guidance. Much of the literature in my work collection bears an embossed stamp stating, “Library of James Alan Rich.” I am deeply grateful for the impact Jim had on my engineering career and was honored to receive his namesake award for Professionalism and Mentorship in 2022.
Ryan Geer
Memories with Jim
Jim was always a great resource to me for technical questions and discussions, especially regarding hazardous materials mitigation. Jim always made the time to thoroughly look at the issues and help find solutions.
On a personal note, when I was doing full time CM work and having jobsite and some minor health issues of my own. Jim would call me to check on how I was doing. This was when he was very close to the end of his life. This was typical Jim, concerned about others.
Jim was very active with a group that was working on environmental preservation of Bear Lake. For a fund raiser golf tournament, he arranged for the Dennis Group to provide sponsorship and a golf team. Jim asked me to put the team together, which I was very happy to do. However, we came in dead last. Don’t know if there were additional fund raisers after that, but we wisely and mercifully disbanded the DG golf team.
For the Dennis Group holiday parties, Jim would entertain us with solo musical numbers on his hand saw. We were planning on turning that into a duet. Him with his saw and I would provide accompaniment and percussion with power tools. Complete with sectioning off the performance area with caution tape, Hot Work Permits and PPE. Unfortunately, he was gone too soon and we were not able to set up the act.