James B. Carothers
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James B. Carothers passed away on July 9, 2024, in Lawrence, KS. Jim was born in St. Louis, MO on June 21, 1942, to Barrett and Eva Carothers. After graduating from Southwest High School, he received a BA and MA from the University of Missouri. He first met Beverly Wendel on a blind date while at Mizzou. After marrying, they moved to Charlottesville, VA where Jim earned a PhD at the University of Virginia with a dissertation on William Faulkner’s short stories.
In 1970 they moved to Lawrence and Jim began his 46-year career at the University of Kansas as a professor of English. Generations of Jayhawks remember Jim welcoming them to KU during Traditions Night, assisting them in the Help Room during enrollment, and congratulating them during hooding and graduation ceremonies. The accolades he cherished the most concerned his teaching and advising, including the Chancellor’s Club Career Teaching Award.
Jim’s teaching focused on modern American fiction (from Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald to American Humor), Shakespeare, and an array of Honors courses. Two favorite courses which he developed included the “Literature of Baseball” and “Honors: Comedy and Humor”. Beyond the classroom, he served twelve years in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as Associate Dean, as well as in the Provost’s Office and the Honors Program. Jim further served the university as President of Faculty four times, through myriad committees, and as a football statistician with a cadre of English professors for over 25 years.
Like his teaching, Jim’s research focused on Faulkner, Hemingway, and American Humor. He first attended the University of Mississippi’s Faulkner Conference in 1979 and participated in each following year. He was a founding editor of the Faulkner Journal and looked forward to leading the annual “Teaching Faulkner” sessions with his former KU student Theresa Towner.
Jim found creative ways to combine his interests on topics from Hemingway and baseball in Faulkner to the American Hero and even Dave Barry. Jim lectured and gave papers from the University of Beijing to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, from Cooperstown to West Point, from Ronda, Spain to Stresa, Italy. Following retirement, Jim continued his Faulkner research through the Digital Yoknapatawpha project enabling educators to introduce new readers to Mr. Faulkner and his Postage Stamp of Native Soil.
Jim’s love of baseball and humor were constants throughout his life. He played first base and wore number 6 in honor of Cardinal Stan “The Man” Musial, introducing his wife to the game with a sunny double-header in St. Louis and teaching each family member to keep score. Jim played many seasons of church league softball with the Plymouth “Rocks,” and for 50 years he played the tabletop baseball game “Ballpark” on Monday nights. Always with a joke on hand, little Jimmy learned the power of humor in first grade when his teacher sent him to the principal’s office for wiggling his ears. Instead of disciplining him, the principal laughed and asked “how do you DO that?”
Jim is survived by his wife of 63 years, Beverly; daughter, Cathleen; son, Michael (Karmel); grandson, Nicholas; granddaughter, Kelsey (Charlie) Bernard; and great-grandson, Bentley Bernard. Perhaps his most enduring legacy to his family is the solace of a good story with the enduring philosophy of the Silly ol’ Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the KU Honors Program for study abroad (via KU Endowment or Warren-McElwain Mortuary). A celebration of life will follow in the fall.
A beautiful tribute to a life well lived, dedicated to instilling a love of learning, literature and baseball.
Sending prayers
Sending love. What a wonderful man, teacher, and father. He will be remembered.
Sending love and light to Mrs. Beverly and family- Jim was always so very gracious and kind to all who knew him.
Jim was a good man who truly loved life. He brought us jokes and stories to make us feel just a little better. Our sincere condolences to Beverly, his family, and the many friends who loved him.
Dear Jim,
I hope you tipped back that cup of mead with Faulkner when you reached Valhalla.
Thank you for everything.
God bless you.
A true gentleman and scholar. May his memory be a blessing to all who knew him
Jim was a beloved colleague and friend and an “extra grandpa” to my daughter. We shared a hallway and, over the years, many a joke and spirited story about everything from modernism to university administration. He was endlessly supportive to me as a junior scholar – and then again as I took on more departmental responsibilities. He was proud of his students and of his family, and I feel lucky to have known him as a mentor and friend.
I am sorry to hear that Jim has passed. My heart is broken for you and your family Bev. My deepest sympathy goes out to the Carothers family. RIP Jim
Jim was a special teacher, colleague, and friend.. He loved what he did in life and shared that lov, usually with humor. And he adored his family beyond measure. He was a treasure.
Jim Carothers always was more than a colleague. To all who knew him he represented what an educator was supposed to be. Jim managed–I don’t know how–to be approachable to students and colleagues alike without sacrificing rigor or depth. He was utterly unpretentious. Conversations with Jim were like talking to your older brother who was riding shotgun on a cross-country trip and instructing you about the world, the devil and god, having met and spoken personally with the latter two. Jim was easy to like, and even easier to respect.
Jim, you deserved extra innings but didn’t need them. Ad astra, my friend.
I loved Jim’s stories and am deeply grateful for his help on my doctoral committee. He was an early supporter of baseball narratives as significant cultural phenomena worthy of academic scrutiny. It was a small group in the 1980’s. Jim’s advising was gentle and insightful — the very best of teaching.
All of us in the Lorenz family were deeply saddened to hear of Jim’s passing. He and Beverly welcomed us into the Lawrence community when we first arrived more than thirty years ago, and the friendship they extended to us remained one of our most cherished over the years.
Jim was instrumental in so many ways in helping me adjust and thrive at KU, and his encouragement and mentorship was always sought and appreciated. We bonded over our mutual love of literature, American writing, and baseball. And his keen sense of humor and irony was one of Jim’s most endearing traits and one of the ways we will most fondly remember him.
We treasured Jim as a friend of honor and dignity and will always think dearly of him.
I was privileged to take Dr. Carothers’ course “The Literature of Baseball” in the spring of ’85 and a graduate seminar on “Early Hemingway/Early Faulkner” in the fall of ’89. In that latter course, his final lecture for the 10 of us gathered around the conference table was the finest academic lecture I ever heard. He credited that class with reinvigorating his love of teaching, and it was truly a privilege to be there soaking up his gentle wit, wisdom and humanity. I am sad to know he is gone.
Jim, as a fellow St. Louisan, shared our mutual love for Cardinal baseball and “Stan the Man Musial”; in our some forty-plus years together on the Hill, he invariably had a thoughtful, kind or humorous remark when we met in the halls of Wescoe. He was always a supportive colleague and will be truly missed. Our sincere condolences to Beverly and his extended family.
What a mighty difference Jim made to so many! And how admirably he carried it out! All of the GOOD he put into motion will ripple on and on!
Thank you Jim for all of the laughs, for sharing your literary insights, your life insights, as only you could, for your wisdom and encouragements often wrapped in a story with lingering resonance. Bless you and your dear extraordinary Beverly, for being such dynamos of positivity, and for weathering the considerable storms along the way with such strength and gratitude, grace and wonder.
Cathleen and Michael, bless you both for being the wonderfuls that you are, including being there in full supportive force not only through Jim’s last chapter, but throughout! The extra gleam in your papa’s
eyes whenever he spoke of you says it all!
“Though the voice is quiet now, the Spirit echoes still.”
Much Much love and deepest condolences,
from the Berg family ❤️
So sorry to hear this Beverly. He was such a nice man. I always enjoyed our conversations with you and Jim at Bryant Collision. Sending love your way! Tina Bryant Bates