James Darden Rives, Jr.
Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy
James Darden Rives was born on 31 October 1923, in Norfolk, VA, the son of James Darden and Grace (Sebrell) Rives of the Tidewater region of Virginia. The son of a Naval Officer in the Medical Corps, Jim traveled extensively in his younger years. He had lived in Norfolk, VA; Great Lakes, IL; San Diego, CA; Manila, Philippines; and Shanghai, China, by the time he was 13. Taking Dollar Steamship Line ships on the return home, they visited Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), passed through the Suez Canal, saw the Great Pyramids, and traveled through Europe before returning to the Main Line of Philadelphia. This experience always formed his world outlook, his love of the Navy and Marine Corps, and of military and naval history.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Jim entered the U.S. Naval Academy with the Class of 1946. That class graduated a year early, in June of 1945, due to the war. He joined USS North Carolina (BB-55) in the Pacific and was a division officer assigned to a battery of 5' guns. North Carolina was patrolling the waters off Japan as the Japanese surrendered to Allied forces in September 1945, ending WWII.
Seeing that the future of warfare was favoring aviation, Jim attended Naval Flight School at Pensacola, FL. He flew helicopters and patrol seaplanes in Panama, Norfolk, and Iwakuni, Japan.
James married Joan Melville Piltz, of Newport, RI, at Trinity Church in 1950. They formed a family of three children, Darden, Kathy and Lynn, and continued the nomadic Navy life at stations in Norfolk; Louisville, KY; Coronado, CA; Iwakuni, Japan; Newport, RI; and finally, in Brunswick, ME. James Rives retired from the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in 1965.
In 1965, Jim began a 23-year second-career in materials management at Hyde Windlass Company and Bath Iron Works in Bath, ME. He retired from BIW in 1988.
Jim was active in the YMCA in the 1960s as the Chairman of the Building Committee which oversaw the expansion of the YMCA at that time. He was the scoutmaster of BSA Troop 99 for several years. For many years, while in retirement, he volunteered at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. He also was actively involved with Grace Episcopal Church in Bath for a number of years.
In November 2010, after 47 years as residents of Bath, Jim and Joan moved to an independent living apartment at The Highlands in Topsham, ME.
Lieutenant Commander James Darden Rives Jr., 88, died on Wednesday, 29 February 2012, in his apartment at The Highlands in Topsham. He had been well and independent up until that day, and passed quietly in his own bed, as was his wish.
Jim is survived by his wife, Joan, who currently resides at The Highlands, Topsham; their three children; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson. He is also survived by his cousin, Aline Langston of Norfolk, VA, as well as several other cousins related through the Sebrell family located in Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey.
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