James Ernest "Jim" Dyson (17 May 1950 – 28 October 2020) was an American minister and teacher serving primarily in the city of

Largo, Florida Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, as well as the fourth largest in the Tampa Bay area. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 82,500, up from 69,371 in 2000. Largo was first incorporated in 1 ...

. Throughout his career, he would found and serve as Area Director of

Young Life Young Life is an evangelical Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado which focuses on young people in middle school, high school, and college. Week-long Summer camps are a major focus, and these have a definite evangelizing asp ...

in Ridgecrest, Florida, serve as Vice President of Young Life's Eastern Division, and begin a children's literacy program at Ridgecrest

Elementary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

Early life

Dyson was born and would grow up in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. On a scholarship for track and field, he moved to

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

in 1968 to run track for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. Dyson's university career during

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

of the

American Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the United ...

inspired his outreach in minority and low-income communities. He married Amy Simpson Dyson in 1970, with whom he had two children.

Career

Dyson moved to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

in 1972 where he began his work with Young Life. He would later move to Largo, Florida in 1974 outside the low-income community of Ridgecrest, where he established an

Urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

Young Life in the area to support the local youth. He served in this position at Young Life through the remainder of the

20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

. In 1998, Dyson would be named Vice President of

Multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

and Urban Ministry for the Central Southern Division of Young Life. In 2005, Dyson would be appointed as Vice President of Field Ministry in the Eastern Division. During his time at Young Life, Dyson dedicated himself to understanding

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

issues, being praised for his understanding of such by colleague BeBe Hobson. Dyson

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

in 2014, and Young Life, in commemoration, established the Jim Dyson Young Life Center in Ridgecrest. Following Dyson's retirement in 2014, he established the Panther Pals Reading program at Ridgecrest Elementary School. The program would be founded on the principle of improving children's literacy in the Ridgecrest community. In 2017, the program reported 180 students and 80

volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

participating in the program. That year, the Principal of Ridgecrest Elementary School, Michael Moss, stated that students who participated in the program saw significantly increased reading scores. From 1980 until his death, Dyson led and taught a

Sunday School A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

program at Anona

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

. With Anona, he would also attend

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

to their sister church in Cardenas, Cuba, Iglesia Methodist de Cardenas.

Illness and death

In 2018, Dyson was diagnosed with

Lou Gehrig’s disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

, or

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

. Following the diagnosis, Dyson would continue his ministry until his death. On August 22, 2020, a

Little Free Library Little Free Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes neighborhood book exchanges, usually in the form of a public bookcase. More than 150,000 public book exchanges are registered with the organization and branded as Little Fre ...

was dedicated to Dyson, entitled Mr. Jim's Little Neighborhood Library. The library had the stated purpose of allowing Ridgecrest children access to books during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Young Life donated a public bench and a portion of property at the site of the Jim Dyson Young Life Center to install the library. Dyson would pass away on October 28th, 2020 due to complications from Lou Gehrig's disease at age 70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, James 1950 births 2020 deaths American educators People from Largo, Florida