James Allen Rode

James Allen (Jim) Rode drew his last breaths August 29, 2023 in Sunset Hills, MO. after a fond good night from wife Jan (nee Tague). His daughter Sandra Rode, son Stephen (Becky) Rode, grandsons Stephen and Benjamin Rode, stepdaughter Julie Painter, friends, extended family, and past co-workers mourn his loss. Jim was born to Carl A. and Helena B. (nee Mager) Rode of Port Arthur, TX on October 15, 1930. He graduated Port Arthur High School and attended Lamar Junior College there. During his college years at University of Texas, he lived in a dorm under the football stadium. There he forged his life-long loyalty to the Longhorn team, but he held just as tightly to the rest of his Lone Star heritage. He greeted folks with "howdy" for decades after he left the state. He kept his slow speech throughout his life, once falling asleep during his own sentence! Jim lived his life by the Boy Scout oath. From his own days in a church troop, to shepherding his sons through the ranks, to supporting troop sponsors, and cheering his grandsons' progress, he supported the Boy Scout movement. Habits and chores from his Depression years upbringing became hobbies later in life. Jim became a string photographer for the local paper as he finished high school and surrendered this interest late in life. He kept a vegetable-only garden, disdaining flowers. He joined men of the family fishing whenever he returned to Texan waters. Jim earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at University of Texas, Austin. And he stuck to that field, from days in the research lab at Mallinckrodt Chemical Company in north St. Louis, through twists and turns of corporate ownership. He retired from AB&B and his career in peacetime nuclear fuels forty odd years later, after decades managing a Hematite, MO fuel enrichment facility. Always a private man, he gave his all when he took up community activities. He was a charter member of St. Thomas (Holy Spirit) Lutheran Church. In every faith congregation he attended, he was a stalwart supporter, serving in leadership from St. Thomas to Episcopal Church of the Advent. Wife Jan and he met in the kitchen at Church of the Advent, chopping salad for SAJE, a joint ministry of several congregations, to seniors. While he lived and worked in Jefferson County, he served on a county grand jury. He cycled through the leadership roles in the Hillsboro Community Civic Club, although horses and loud trucks had no other place in his life. Never active politically, he ran for City Councilman of Sunset Hills in his early eighties. His campaign plan, of visiting every single residence on foot, was in perfect keeping with his fitness program. At the time, Jim was still jogging. Twenty-five years into the habit, he had become a bit of a "fitness fanatic." Five days before he had a five-way heart bypass his cardiologist and family begged him to pause. To the WOBBLEs of Whitecliff Park, he was Jim2. Until the last weeks of his life, he re-set the Nustep in the gym to ridiculous resistance levels when a physical therapist or family member looked away. Jim was preceded in death by his parents; brothers Carl W. and David C. Rode; sister Mary Helen Neumeister; wife Huldah (nee Mortimer); and sons Carl W. and Mark H. Rode. He will be buried near his sons and their mother at Episcopal Church of the Advent, Crestwood, MO. Service will be held there at 10:30 a.m., September 29, 2023.

James Allen Rode

October 15, 1930 - August 29, 2023