JAMES MATTHEW MCILRATH
March 21, 1948-March 5, 2012
Our brother “Jimmy” was born in Bermuda while our father was stationed there with the Air Force as part of the Hurricane Hunters. As a child he was surrounded by ocean, fish, dogs, cats, and people who demonstrated a love of life. Jimmy certainly continued living his life in a way that made these things most important. From Bermuda we moved to Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, California to Mitchell Field, New York, to our mother’s home town of Madison, Minnesota while our father completed a duty assignment at Keflavik, Iceland. 1958 saw our move to Hill Air Force Base, where we lived at Sunset, Utah. He was in the 4th grade then and went to North Davis Junior High, Clearfield High, and graduated from Ben Lomond High in 1966. This was the Viet Nam war era and like many others, Jimmy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps along with several friends. They were sent to Camp Pendleton in southern California for training and eventually sent to Viet Nam. This was at the time of the Tet Offensive . Jimmy was honorably discharged as a corporal and returned to civilian life where he held many jobs: circus worker, abalone diver, pipe layer, carpenter, businessman, warehouse worker. He had excellent organizational skills and was a creative thinker. While living in Salt Lake City, he was known for his sprout business, Alfa Sprouts. His two special dogs, Shadow and Grizzley were his constant business partners.
He never married but had several significant relationships in which he helped to raise children (Shar and Robbie) and was the mainstay of a fund-raising effort to raise money for a bone-marrow transplant for Lori in her treatment of breast cancer.
Lori did not survive but Jimmy continued to raise Shar until adulthood.
He was retired from working at Hill Force Base as a warehouse worker with 80% disability related to PTSD and injuries received in Viet Nam.
In this time period, he began to dabble in the collectibles market and buy and sell to earn that little extra money it took to live.
He used his organizational skills to research the items of interest and market them.
Throughout all his life, living in the out of doors:
hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, boating were the greatest pleasures of his life, especially when you could crank up the stereo on the drive there playing his favorite musicians
: Bob Dylan, Greg Brown,
John Prine, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and…. He played guitar and harmonica, sang fairly well, and loved to go to concerts.
He was a prankster and teaser, but also listened with his heart and was generous to a fault.
He gave until it hurt.
To recall the times we have spent together is to remember a big man with a big heart who loved to have fun with others and tried to keep the party rolling.
He is survived by his sisters Linda Griffen and Patty (Trish) Martin; his brothers Douglas McIlrath, Billy McIlrath and Gary McIlrath;
niece Shivani Cutler, nephews Zack Griffen, Robert McIlrath, Shane Martin, Steven Wright; step-daughter Sharlun Ston;, many cousins who shared our early life together, beloved aunts and uncles.
His was a life well-lived and he will be deeply missed.There will be a memorial recognition of his life on March 21 from 7-9 at Wasatch Presbyterian Church located at 17th South and 17th East in Salt Lake City. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in care of Linda Griffen at 1551 Park St. Salt Lake City. He’s gone fishing. Semper Fi.
