Like so many of our Habitat Regulars, those loyal construction volunteers who can be counted on to be at any given build site on any given day throughout the year, Jim Brohaugh has morphed in and out of several diverse careers before he came to Habitat.

Growing up in Montana near Yellowstone Park, he remembers family trips with his big brother Don, to watch the bears forage through the garbage dumps. Perhaps that is when he began to develop his very own unique sense of dry humor, wit, and imagination. Those qualities, plus his talents as a home builder/ carpenter/woodworker, make Jim fun to be around.

As a child Jim considered the following careers: writer, carpenter, farmer and preacher.
In high school he won first place in a contest for his Christmas short story, “Rudolph’s Brother Timothy, the Red-Tailed Reindeer”, the previously untold true story of how Santa was able to return to his home at the North Pole. Even though he has pursued other careers, he still loves to write.

As a young man he did service in the US Army as a Radar Technician, and then enrolled at Montana State College, majoring in Electrical Engineering. Following graduation he worked in two fields: missiles and computers (back in the days when computer memories were measured in kilobytes rather than gigabytes, a difference of a million). He started with Boeing Aircraft and later went with GE who shipped him to various addresses including Alaska and Sweden. While in Sweden, Jim met and married a German frauline, Christiane, who was working there. They eventually returned to California’s Silicon Valley where he became employed by Lockheed Aircraft. Jim recalls that in the 1960′s, there were eight computer companies which were called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. IBM was “Snow White” and the seven other companies were the dwarfs. Control Data Corporation was one of the dwarfs and Jim was hired as a computer programmer. He was assigned to various locations including the Naval Weapons Lab in Virginia and NASA at Edwards AFB. He said these were his most satisfying jobs because he could make things happen…” like firing missiles into space, controlling the earth’s rotation, moving mountains in addition to making coffee.” By the time he was forty, he was ready to move on to his next career, this time in Medford, Oregon. He had read in a Mother Earth publication that money grew on trees there in the form of peaches and pears.

For the next 30 years Jim was a bona-fide, tractor-driving farmer growing peaches and pears for the local population. At one time he went into competition with Harry and David, the pear gift box tycoons, with his own micro mini gift box business, selling his gifts at a fraction of H&D price. During this period Carpenter Jim began to develop. He built his own home incorporating 10 different species of wood throughout including peach wood from his orchard. He is an ardent woodworker and claims that wood is in his DNA and that trees have dual lives to live. The first is to beautify the earth and then to be crafted into useful items and works of art. Jim’s specialty is creating items in the Scandinavian style. Some of his works of art are pictured with this article.

It was a heart attack and the realization that the money growing on trees was a false rumor propagated by Johnny Appleseed that led him to retirement. In 2002, he moved to Tucson to be close to his brother Don and to happily bask in the warm, sunny climate.

Jim has volunteered for Habitat for 10 years, first as a snowbird and now year round. He prefers to work on the interior of the home with his buddy, Armand Minuti. Jim says, “Armand Minuti and I work as a team and, because of each of our own inadequacies, we complement each other’s faults. For example, if I compute 2+2=5, Armand will recalculate and provide the correct answer of 2+2=3.” Somehow, together they manage to make it all work to perfection for our homes.

Jim’s favorite Habitat experience is meeting other volunteers from various backgrounds who come together for a common purpose. He strongly feels it is his God-directed duty to provide service to those in need. At Habitat he is able to use the talents that he has been given and developed to help provide a home to those in need.

Thus, we have amongst us a writer, radar technician, electrical engineer, computer programmer, orchardist and woodworker that could pass for one of Santa’s elves wearing the right outfit. There is always a possibility that Preacher Jim will emerge, but Habitat hopes that Carpenter Jim will remain with us for a long time.

Thanks, Jim, for sharing your time, talents, and humor with all of us.

Submitted by Ginny Glab-Schultz and ghost writer, Jim Brohaugh.