James A. (Jim) Regan, 79, died Thursday, June 24th 2021 at his home in Dubuque, with family and caregiver at his side.  In accordance with his wishes there will be no visitation or services; Jim deeded his body to the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.

Jim was born Sept. 3rd 1941, the fifth of nine children of John F. and Veronica (Lex) Regan of Rickardsville IA. His living siblings include John (Maureen) of Newton NJ, Margaret Kurth of Mendota IL, Katie (Perly) Reeg, Jeanne (Leroy) Reeg, Alice Rhomberg and brother-in-law Carl Lange of Dubuque.  Those passing before Jim include his brother Tom (1968), father John (1980), mother Veronica (1986), father-in-law Arnold Siegert (1995), mother-in-law June Siegert (2014), brothers-in-law Jack Rhomberg (2014) and Ken Kurth (2020), and sisters Irene Hauber (2018) and Mary Lange (2020).

Jim met the love of his life, Sandy Siegert, in 1961.  He started a near sixty year marriage with her the following year.  Their children are Jeffrey, wife Helene (Vervoort) Regan, Gregory, Jodi Watters and her husband Jim (Bert) Watters. Jim greatly enjoyed nurturing and teasing their six grandchildren, including Anika, Winnifred, Veronica and Pippa Regan and Eli and Elliot Watters.

Jim enjoyed walleye fishing at Leech Lake in Minnesota, and hunting deer, coyote, racoon, pheasant and wild turkey around the Midwest. He was a member of Whitetails Unlimited, The Walleye Club, Pheasants Forever, the Wild Turkey Federation, the Elks, and the NRA. Jim enjoyed hunting for morel mushrooms and wild black raspberries. He’d pick 30 quarts of black raspberries in a season to share with family and friends. Sandy’s black raspberry pies were the best.

Jim served for 23 years with the Asbury Volunteer Fire Department. Although he never mastered the games of golf and euchre he greatly enjoyed being on the Thursday evening golf league at Timberline for 27 years. Jim & Sandy were also members of the Tri State Stump Jumpers & Main Street Cruisers Car Clubs. Jim was a long time member of St. Joseph’s the Worker Parish. He helped convert the vacated church to a school gym & auditorium. When the “round church” was ready for services, Jim called bingo games in the church basement.

Jim started his fifty year career with John Deere in September 1960 for $1.99 an hour when he turned nineteen. He retired (for the first time) after 37 years as Manager, Technical Services. After a break he was called back to a new role as product support for rental marketing.

Jim & Sandy traveled extensively.  Jim once enjoyed scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. In Rome, he saw Pope John Paul II cruise by at arm’s length standing up in his open Jeep Popemobile. In Galway Ireland he spotted a Regan Tavern owned and operated by four generations of Jim Regan’s with ages ranging from 15 to 92 years old.  Jim climbed to the precarious top of Huayna Picchu, the mountain everyone has seen in the background of photos of Machu Picchu, to get a better look.

Jim was a hands-on autodidact, acquiring practical skills in many areas.  He did most of the work on his first house, falling asleep while hammering in shingles, only to wake up and continue minutes later.  He remodelled the original Asbury Fire Station, helped with major remodels on his children’s homes, helped install Greg’s diesel repair equipment, helped on countless projects at the in-laws farm – fencing, forestry, animal husbandry, welding, and tractor repair, and was generally known as a cheerful problem solver, putting family and friends first.

In July 2012, at age 70, Jim suffered a spinal cord injury at the C6-C7 level as the result of a bad fall and bone brittleness related to treatments of previous neck injuries. After decades of helping others and rarely asking for help himself, the world inverted. Following almost a year in hospitals and care centers Jim came home, where Sandy became his primary caregiver for the next eight years, aided by Jodi, Bert, Greg and caregivers hired by Sandy. Jim’s family came to know many amazing people in eastern Iowa and Rochester who’ve chosen to work as nurses in emergency rooms, intensive care units, hospital floors, nursing homes, physical therapy centers, home care, and hospice.  In particular, the wonderful and highly skilled Sandy Koltes was there for the duration, caring for Jim and suffering through his jokes. They were terrible, but made funny by how he could barely keep from cracking up during their long and winding delivery. Jim continued to maintain his arm strength with daily exercise, and would happily surprise visitors with an impromptu arm wrestling match.

Jim’s life can be summed up in a phrase he often intoned to remind others not to give up:  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.