James Edward Lake

James Edward Lake, age 90, passed away peacefully September 12, 2024 at his home in Madison. He was a loving husband of 58 years to Shirley (née Seaman), with whom he traveled the world; a caring parent to their son and father figure to their son’s friends and several international students; a beloved figure in both the Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood and among a summer community on Lake Superior in Ontonagon, Michigan; and a dedicated educator with a deep sense of local and global civic responsibility.

Jim was born August 3, 1934, in Beloit, Wisconsin, to James O. Lake and Florence (née Myers) Lake. His mother was a voracious reader and frequently took him to the library, inspiring a life-long love of reading and studying. In part due to support and encouragement from his older sister, Mary Ellen, he earned a scholarship to Beloit College. At Beloit he made lifelong friends and developed his deep and abiding academic and personal interest in politics. After being drafted into the US Army and serving a tour in France, he taught middle school in Denver, Colorado, where he met his future wife Shirley at a dance at a Unitarian church, through what he delighted in telling people was “the snowball incident.” They were married in 1959.

By the early 1960s Jim and Shirley had moved to Madison, where he taught middle school briefly, earned a Master’s Degree in Political Science from UW-Madison, and taught for more than 30 years at Madison East High School. Along with a close-knit, idealistic group of Social Studies colleagues, he helped create a “Decision Making” course about government policy.

He greatly enjoyed international and domestic travel with his wife, and later with his son and daughter-in-law, especially visiting friends. He traveled overseas well more than 20 times, visiting Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. He especially loved Bangkok (home of a multi-generational family of close friends), Amsterdam, Oslo (where he twice attended summer school in Peace Studies at the University of Oslo), and Paris. He also loved domestic travel, notably to Maine and recently Alaska.

Jim was an ardent lover of hiking, cross-country-skiing, and camping (and an ardent tolerator of canoeing.) The Lakes purchased land and built a cabin along Lake Superior in Ontonagon Township, Michigan, joining a community of friends, many with ties to Beloit College. They formed close relationships with multiple generations of friends up and down the beach, and in Ontonagon proper. Jim and Shirley would often spend summers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, enjoying the community and Porcupine Mountain State Park. Jim celebrated his 90th birthday in Ontonagon this year with many members of that community who traveled from across the U.S. and Canada.

For more than15 years, starting when their son David was a teenager, Jim and Shirley would host David and his friends for cross-country and downhill skiing in early January at the modestly-sized cabin. This was quite an endeavor, given the extreme cold and (in early years) the lack of potable running water or shower. Jim and Shirley were very close to that circle of friends, who were able to see Jim this last summer in Sturgeon Bay, where they now gather (along with their children) each summer at the cabin of family friends from Madison.

Jim was known for his kindness, generosity, unassuming and dry sense of humor, love of reading, abiding interest in others, and daily neighborhood walks during which he made and nurtured friendships. He enthusiastically supported both the Madison Symphony and the Madison Chamber Orchestra (attending regularly with dear friends), and voraciously consumed political news.

He is survived by son David Lake, daughter-in-law Tonia (Mirah) Lake, nephews John Connor, Bill Seaman, and Paul Seaman, and many chosen family and friends. He was preceded in death by wife Shirley, sister and brother-in-law Mary Ellen and Don Connor, in-laws Richard and Susan Seaman, nephew Tom Connor, and niece Sarah Dubuque.

The family would like to thank Dr. Gauri Bhutani, Dr. Kathryn Schueller, Molly Dermody and Michele Kryshak from Agrace Hospice Care, Munkhbayar (Mogi) Aldargaviya, and the extraordinary international, multigenerational, interconnected set of friends who shared and enriched Jim’s life. 

A memorial service will be held at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens Evjue Commons in Madison at 2 p.m. Sunday October 20, 2024 with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Agrace Hospice Care, the UW Carbone Cancer Center, the Carter Center, the Center for Victims of Torture, Physicians for Social Responsibility, or the Southern Poverty Law Center.