Former Arlington Heights resident, scholar James Colvin dies at 96

Former Arlington Heights resident James E. Colvin, a scholar who helped create the Great Books Foundation, has died.

Colvin, 96, died on Jan. 4 in Greenville, S.C., where he moved from the Northwest suburbs after retirement.

After graduating from Loyola University of Chicago in 1934, Colvin worked at the Chicago Daily News and eventually became an assistant city editor. He was named a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University in 1942 and was the oldest living Neiman Fellow when he died.

Colvin served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he worked for Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago as director of public relations, taking the train in from the Arlington Heights station. He later moved to World Book Encyclopedia, directing two unsuccessful expeditions to find the Loch Ness Monster. He retired in 1972 and moved to North Carolina and later to South Carolina.

In 1952, Colvin, Dr. Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins of the University of Chicago teamed up to found the Great Books Foundation.

Colvin appeared on game shows in the early days of television as a Britannica representative. He co-authored a book to help people out with commonly misspelled and mispronounced words.

An avid reader, Colvin's intellectual curiosity was boundless, said his daughter-in-law, Kathleen Colvin, of Arlington Heights.

"He was an incredibly intelligent man," she said. "Up until the day he died, he always had a well-informed opinion about things."

Stephen Colvin, Colvin's son and Kathleen's husband, described his dad as "a crusty old guy" who schooled himself in many subjects through reading, especially religion.

Stephen said his dad's last words to him seemed to be an admonition about how to live his life: "We are fighting for justice with those who know the word of God."

Colvin's former wife, Mary Geary, and oldest son, Timothy, preceded him in death. In addition to Stephen and Kathleen, he is survived by his grandchildren, Justin (Melissa), Casey, and Tory (Mark) Orlando, with a great-grandson due in March.

A private service will be conducted at a later date to inter his ashes in Memory Gardens Cemetery, Arlington Heights.