Jim was born in Girard, Ohio, which is between Warren and Youngstown in Eastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. After graduating from Girard High School in 1948, he attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for two years. In 1950 he transferred to the Cleveland Institute of Art from which he graduated in 1953. Following a two year tour in the army, Jim returned to the Cleveland area and attended Western Reserve University (now Case-Western Reserve University) for two years, receiving both a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Art Education.

After graduation he was hired by the Midview School District in Grafton, Ohio, as an art teacher and remained in this position for nineteen years. In 1977 he was hired in the neighboring Elyria City Schools as Art Coordinator, a position he held for ten years. He retired in 1987, after twenty-nine years in public education. Two years later he became an adjunct professor at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he teaches art education courses. Thus, Jim has been an art educator for over forty years.