Jim enlisted in the Air Force while still in high school and left for basic shortly after graduation in 1971. He trained as a Radio Intercept Operator and was trained in German, Vietnamese, and Arabic; serving in Berlin Germany, Nakhon Phanom Thailand, and Athens Greece, separating the Air Force in 1979.
He joined the Air Force Reserves in 1980 and trained as a medic/EMT, rejoining the active Air Force later the same year. He moved his family to Vandenberg AFB, CA. While assigned to the hospital at Vandenberg, he was assigned as an ambulance driver for President Reagan at the Western White House. While there he completed his college pre-requisites and applied to the Air Force Physician Assistant program. He entered the program in 1983 and graduated in 1985 being assigned to Vance AFB, OK. He was assigned to Hahn AB, Germany in 1989 and stayed until the base closure in 1993. He was then assigned to Peterson AFB, CO and retired in 1994.
After retirement, he attended Alderson-Broaddus College in Phillipi WV completing his Masters degree in 1996. While attending the program, he worked for Valley Health Systems out of Huntington WV and opened a solo practice clinic in the southern coal fields of WV. After graduating in 1996 he joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky (UK) Physician Assistant program and was one of three faculty members starting the extension program at Morehead State University. He served as the Program Director at Morehead from 1998 to 2002. After leaving UK, he moved to Marietta College in Marietta OH to help start the new Physician Assistant program and served on faculty until leaving in 2007.
Returning to his home in the Cincinnati area, Jim worked for Ohio Gastroenterology and Liver Institute (Ohio GI) until 2016. While working at Ohio GI, he divided his clinic time with working in the group’s clinical research department where he gained extensive experience working with many new GI medications in clinical trials. When he left Ohio GI, Jim joined Sterling Research and worked full-time conducting clinical trials on various medications and vaccines. He fully retired from clinical work in 2023.
Jim is married to Belen (Turull) Fry for 50+ years. They have two children, 6 grandchildren and 5 great-grandsons.