James "Jim" Preston Stanley

James P. “Jim” Stanley was born on June 4, 1941 in Coleman, TX to William P. and Edith Stanley. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Seminole, TX to be close to his maternal grandparents, when his family joined the army early in the war.

However, his father was rejected due to heart issues and the family moved to an oil camp outside of Seminole. When Jim was ten, he began working for a cotton farmer adjacent to the oil camp. He worked on that farm for six years while also raising a series of 4-H animals.

Upon graduation from high school, Jim enrolled in Texas Tech and worked summers in the oil field. In 1965, he graduated with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. He then enrolled at Indiana University, obtaining his PhD. In 1968, he took the position Post-Doctoral Research/Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University, doing chemical research and teaching undergraduates.

In 1975, Jim took a position of Research Scientist with Union Carbide Corp. in Tarrytown, NY. This is where he met his wife-to-be who worked in the same research group. Jim and Priscilla were married in 1978. In 1985, the couple were transferred to research labs in Bound Brook, NJ. They retired early in 2000 and moved to the Hill Country to build a house north of Kerrville.

The couple soon became deeply involved in learning anything and everything they could about native plants and animals, native habitat, and land management. They took every day-long workshop given by Bamberger Ranch, as well as any presentation by any TPWD, AgriLife Extension, NRCS or Texas Forest personnel. They also became volunteers at Riverside Nature Center and became friends with most of the other volunteers. 

In 2002, Priscilla and Jim were in the first class of the Hill Country Master Naturalists, and became friends with most of the other students and teachers. Soon both Jim and Priscilla were involved with all of the Master Naturalist activities including teaching many classes for several years. Jim organized a group of knowledgeable Master Naturalists in an organization called the Land Management Assistance Program where landowners could request a visit and advice on how best to manage their land. The program has been unitized by over 500 landowners on over 44,000 acres of the Hill Country.

In 2009, Jim’s first book, “Hill Country Landowners Guide” was published by Texas A&M, and in 2012 the Native Plant Society of Texas awarded the book the Carroll Abbott award for writing. Subsequent books have been “A Beginners Handbook for Rural Texas Landowners” and “Hill Country Ecology, Essays on Plants, Animals, Water and Land Management”, and finally, a free gift to landowners, “A Guide for Small Hill Country Landowners.”

Jim also wrote a weekly column, Hill Country Naturalist, for the Kerrville Daily Times beginning in 2010, which was also published in recent years by 5 other Hill Country Papers.

People wishing to remember Jim may do so with a donation to Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos St. Kerrville, TX 78028; (830) 257-4837.

Services with integrity, pride, and honor are under the direction of Kerrville Funeral Home. (830) 895-5111