March 1, 1947-September 3, 2025
James Joseph ‘Jim’ Shields, 78, of Laytonville passed away peacefully on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, while working on the latest edition of The Mendocino County Observer newspaper.
Jim was born in Bloomington, Illinois on March 1, 1947 to Robert E. Shields and Lois Marie Plotts Shields. Jim married Susan Staley on October 6, 1981 at Chateau Lake Louise in Canada. Susan preceded Jim in death in October of 2013.
Surviving are his two children Jimmy (Maria) Shields and Jayma (Roland) Shields Spence, and his grand-dog Chiquita. Jim leaves behind his extended animal family, including Lily the Horse and his many cats, who he loved very much, and they loved him right back. Additionally, Jim is survived by brothers Tom (Judy), John (Nasrin) and Kevin and numerous nieces and nephews.
His parents, siblings Robert Jr. and Patricia preceded him in death.
Jim’s early life was filled with many interesting details. Jim spent time on his family’s Illinois Farm and also assisted with the Shields Family’s Grain Elevator in Illinois. He raised many farm animals and participated in FFA. Jim’s freshman year he attended Roanoke-Benson High School where he participated in basketball and baseball and was considered a talented player and was also on the student council. The Shields Family moved to the Bay Area during his adolescence where Jim graduated from San Mateo High School. In high school Jim was on the student council and the senior class council. He played on tennis, basketball and baseball teams while in high school. He really enjoyed his debating class as well as history and political classes. San Mateo High is where Jim met his first wife Donna Leonhardt, where they were married in 1966, a marriage that brought the birth of Jim’s son “Jimmy.” Donna and Jim’s marriage would end in 1979.
Jim also attended CSM and graduated from Illinois State University with a BS in Political Science and History. Jim would tell a story about how he was interested in becoming a lawyer, and through a friendship that was established with a professor at Harvard University, was offered a scholarship to attend the prodigious Harvard School of Law. Jim ended up moving to a different direction when he joined the Airline Industry instead, and joked he was a Harvard dropout.
Jim was employed by Western Airlines starting off as a “Ramp Rat” (as he referred to himself), where he was one of the people responsible for loading cargo onto the planes at San Francisco International Airport. Jim would entertain us all with his stories from his Ramp Rat days, which ranged from loading Fighting Cocks onto the plane and accidentally releasing prize-winning Greyhounds onto the tarmac.
While working in the airline industry in Los Angeles he would meet a beautiful, smart, caring, funny and no-nonsense Customer Service Agent named Susan. With their good friends, co-workers and allies, they would form the “Airline Transport Employees” union despite pushback and resistance from Western Airlines, the corrupt union that represented WA employees and the federal government. Despite long-odds, the employees decided to trust Jim’s leadership, and voted to accept the new union.
With his charisma, intelligence, knack for understanding legal issues and love of politics, it was perfectly suited he would become involved in the labor movement, where he was voted in as the President of the Airline Transport Employees Union. Jim would also serve on the Board of Directors of Western Airlines. Through his career in the labor movement, Jim experienced many interesting people, situations and problems; none of which fazed him. With his union work came so much history that paved the way for many conditions and regulations that are still in place in the airline industry today.
For example, Jim was surrounded by women in the Union, thanks in large part to Susan’s personality. She attracted smart, capable and strong women leaders into their circle. Jim began inviting the women into the board room (which was basically unheard of in the 70s and 80s). The gruff, old-school union men would openly question his decision to allow women into this role, to which Jim came back with a witty quip to put these guys in their place. Eventually, with Jim’s leadership and trust-building the women were not only invited to the table, but given leadership roles within the Union, and offered protections from gender-discrimination in the industry.
Jim also allowed women to bring their babies to work. Since he and Susan welcomed Jayma in 1982, Susan would bring Jayma along to union meetings and gatherings in various states and Canada. It was said that passing around baby Jayma during tough negotiations broke the ice and got some hard-ass men to soften a bit for the betterment of the Union.
In the mid-to late 80s the airline industry was facing many challenges, including the recent de-regulation of the industry, that Jim would forever say “screwed” the airlines, its workers and its unions. Upon the merger of Western Airlines to Delta Airlines, Jim decided it was no longer for him, and in 1987, Jim, Susan and Jayma moved to Laytonville (Northern Mendocino County), eventually purchasing the Laytonville Ledger which became The Mendocino County Observer.
Newcomers, Jim and Susan got pushback from some “Old Timers” when they bought the Ledger and decided to cover hard news, politics and stories such as the then raging timber wars and not just Chamber of Commerce press releases, local sports, wedding announcements, as had been the norm. Some local business owners protested the coverage and cancelled ads in the paper due to the Obsever’s coverage of these issues, because Jim and Susan didn’t just take the side of the dominant timber industry of the times. “Granny Lois” Shields (Jim’s mother) would move out to Laytonville in the 1990’s and assist with the running of The Observer, which was growing in popularity thanks to Jim’s coverage of Mendocino County politics, when at the time, he was providing coverage of the Board of Supervisors that not many local media outlets were covering.
Jim’s knowledge of history, labor and politics really shaped his ability to take on the bureaucratic system that often screwed the common person. Jim began to act as a local government watchdog, where he would use The Observer’s pages to cover the issues, allow the readers to weigh in via the Letters to the Editor section, and invited collaboration with other journalists to share coverage of important topics.
Jim was known to appear at the Board of Supervisors meetings, where he would use his public comment time to educate, lecture or call BS on the Ukiah-area Bureaucrats. Through his efforts, he built long-lasting friendships with county workers who needed a cheerleader, his readers, and surprisingly the people he originally called BS on.
For those of you who knew Jim, you knew his style of calling something out starts with a preamble on the historical nature of the current problem we faced, a lecture on why we should find this issue important, and then closing remarks on why we needed to side with him for the good of the order.
Through his desire to keep an eye on politics and be an advocate for Good Government, Jim founded the County’s “MAC” system. This was a way for the unincorporated communities, that weren’t a city, to be able to advise their local representative(s) on issues that mattered most. Jim was the Chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council, and forged friendships and trusted relationships with his fellow council members, as well as the agencies and organizations that would attend the LAMAC meetings.
Jim was also the long-time District Manager for the Laytonville County Water District, a job he got when the water district approached him for advice in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and the rest, they say, is history. Jim worked many long hours at the Water Plant and District office, he was known to be running the water plant after 10 p.m. to save the District money on the enormous PG&E bill. If there was a water leak, big or small, Jim was there to assist Jay and Steve, whether they needed his help or not.
Over the years, Jim forged many new friendships with his Water District co-workers, board members and customers. Up until the end, Jim was working with various agencies to save the Water District from financial collapse post-cannabis legalization. Jim spent most waking-hours doing things behind the scenes to prop the Water District up, his dedication to the LCWD will be sorely missed. Jim leaves behind a dedicated and hard-working crew at LCWD: Tracey, Steve and Jay, along with a capable board of directors, Mike, Kary, Tim and Jayma.
Locally, Jim did so much for the Laytonville community and residents. The list is really too long, but some highlights include: setting a sprinkler system to pull backwash water from the water plant, so that it not only was a benefit to the Water District to discharge what was essentially “trash water” but it was also a benefit to the Harwood Park ball field, and made it green 365 days of the year.
With his wife Susan, Jim and their friend Pam, founded the North Pole Toy Express, a Christmas toy drive for the Laytonville kids, we now affectionately call Pam & Susan’s North Pole Toy Express to honor Pam and Susan who enjoyed playing Santa every holiday season. After Susan’s passing, Jim assumed the role of feeding various colonies of feral cats (a term he didn’t like using, because truth be told, what you or I would consider a feral cat, was not feral around Jim). Jim loved causes that supported his Feline Friends, such as the respected non-profit “Spay-Neuter Assistance Program” (SNAP). SNAP worked with Jim to fix populations of Laytonville cats. Jim and Susan donated proceeds from the sales of Observer “fire-starter” newspaper bundles to SNAP, a tradition that Jayma carries on.
When there was a problem in Laytonville, or in Mendocino County, Jim was approached for advice on how to fix it. He saw the devastating potential of the legalization of marijuana and how it could ruin the local and regional economy, and as Jim said one day on KPFN’s “This & That” “we walked into legalization with our eyes wide shut.” He would stand on his soapbox at every LAMAC meeting or water board meeting or Board of Supervisors meeting pointing out that Mendocino County’s cannabis regulations were killing the mom and pop growers, which in turn killed our local economy.
Up until the end, Jim was preparing a fight with the County on the ridiculous code enforcement complaints that blanketed our area, and was going to be appearing at an upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting to let the bureaucrats know their BS wasn’t going to fly.
For those who knew Jim, you know the enormity of his departure. There is a big hole in our community right now, and we may or may not be able to patch it in his absence. We have lost a giant community contributor. We have lost a champion for the working person/small business owner. We have lost history that would provide context for today’s problems and today’s solutions.
Jim was a strong Irish-man, a Union Man, a newspaper man, a water man and a community man. Jim loved exercising, and religiously worked out for at least 1-hour per day, where he kept a log on a clipboard documenting how many minutes of cardio, reps of weights and stretches he did. Jim and Susan owned a sailboat in Marina Del Ray and in the 80s loved sailing every chance they could. Jim loved riding his bike, which in turn many Laytonville residents loved seeing him on his rides. In his earlier years, he also loved running, bocce ball, and tennis. In the 90s Jim coached the Laytonville Warriors Basketball team, and Jayma was his water girl/scorekeeper and Susan took photos for The Observer.
Jim was an avid listener and fan of music. He loved The Stones, Kinks, Doors, ELO, the Punk movement at the Mubuhay Gardens, and had many stories of seeing up and coming bands in LA in the 70s and 80s. Throughout his life Jim had a strong commitment to social justice and tried to help achieve those aims in various ways.
Jim often turned to Irish poems or sayings and this IRISH BLESSING was a favorite of his:
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home,
And may the land of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.
Jayma, Roland, Jimmy and Maria are planning a memorial celebration of life for Jim on Saturday, October 4 from 3-6 p.m. at the Laytonville Rodeo Grounds, next door to the Laytonville County Water District Plant. If the weather is iffy, we will gather inside Harwood Hall. Please bring a potluck dish to share or dessert. If you feel compelled to help honor Jim, pay your water bill; subscribe to The Observer (or get a gift a subscription), or place an ad. Jim and Susan haven’t raised the rates on the newspaper in over 20 years, so every little bit helps keep it going, since Jim invested his own monetary donations into the newspaper.
Donations in Jim’s honor can go to an organization of your choosing: SNAP (Spay Neuter Assistance Program of Mendocino County); Pam & Susan’s North Pole Toy Express; Laytonville Healthy Start Community & Family Resource Center or KPFN/Bella Opus 105.1 FM
If you would like to be in touch with Jayma, an email can be sent to [email protected] or mailing address PO Box 490, Laytonville, CA 95454 or (707) 984-6223. Thank you to everyone who has expressed love, sorrow and offers to assist. It is helping Jim’s survivors more than you may know.
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