James (Jim) Randolph Warren (2-7-12)

POCATALIGO COMMUNITY – James (Jim) Randolph Warren, 84, died Tuesday, February 7, 2012 after a brief illness.

Born in Tignall, Wilkes County, he was the son of the late Francis Joseph “Frank” Warren Sr., and Celestia Angieline “Angie” Standard Warren. He attended school in Tignall until high school where he rode to Elberton with a neighbor and graduated in 1944 from Elbert County High School. He played saxophone in the Army band stationed at Seattle, Wash., and was honorably discharged when WWII ended. He studied architecture at both Georgia Tech and Auburn University. He lived in Atlanta where he worked for a time at Rich’s department store in downtown drawing their floor plans for displays and other renderings, and which was written up in the magazine section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He and the family moved to Athens, where he designed and built several houses during the early 1960s that incorporated innovative energy saving designs and their construction techniques many years before the energy crisis made such techniques popular.

He had lived in the Pocataligo Community since 1967 and owned and operated for many years, Warren Tractor Co., the oldest Deutz, and later Deutz-Allis, dealership in the U.S. After retiring from selling farm equipment, he became active in the Broad River Watershed Association as its first newsletter editor. He studied extensively the uses and hazards to our water supply to change current practices of water management.

Mr. Warren was preceded in death by his brother, Francis Joseph “Joe” Warren, Jr., who died in 1925 and sister, Mary Will Warren (Walker) Dunson, in 2007.

Survivors include his former wife, Mary Bondurant Warren, Athens and their five children, Eve Bondurant Warren (Rick) Mayes, Pocataligo, Mark Standard Warren, Athens, Amy Warren Sanders, Jefferson and Lisa Warren (Darren) Hatch, Athens and La Verkin, Utah; eight grandchildren, Sean Weeks, Athens, Angie (Maj. Brad, U.S. Army) Nicholson, Kampala, Uganda, Laura Elizabeth “Lori” (Mike) Hash, Oklahoma, David Benjamin (Fleur Alma Rystrand) Warren, South Carolina, Robert Nathaniel “Nathan” Sanders, Athens, Amanda “Mandey” Claire Sanders (SSG Brian, U.S. Army) Clark, Killeen, Texas, Mary Rachel Warren and Jennifer Leigh Warren, both of Melbourne, Fla.; and nine great-grandchildren, Haley Weeks, Athens, Aidan and Lyla Nicholson, Kampala, Uganda, Kaisea and Haelea Lucas, Demetry and Lily Hash, all of Oklahoma and Abigal and Alex Clark, Killeen, Texas.

Memorial services will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that a memorial gift be made in his name to the Madison County Library, P.O. Box 38, Danielsville, GA 30633-0038; or, to St. Mary’s Hospice House, 1660 Jennings Mill Road, Bogart, GA 30622