Jim Shields spent his career in Everett as an assistant parks director. Yet his influence stretched from his hometown of Edmonds to Camano Island, where he and his wife made their home.

“There wasn’t anybody who was a stranger,” said Betsy Shields, his wife of 48 years. “He made everybody comfortable.”

James Robert Shields Jr., 69, was killed the night of July 3 when the pickup he was driving crossed the centerline on Highway 530, near Darrington, and collided with a semitruck. The other driver was uninjured. Shields had suffered a stroke in 2002. His wife said she was told it couldn’t be determined whether health played a part in the crash.

Betsy Shields said her husband had stopped to visit a friend that day, helped spray some blackberry bushes and was on his way to look at a remote-controlled airplane. Flying small-scale planes was a longtime hobby.

Along with his widow, Shields is survived by his son, James Shields III, daughter-in-law Marcelle, grandchildren Holyanna and Jimmy, sister Margaret Belisle, and an adopted son, Anthony Stephen Robbins.

He also leaves dear friend Pete Scobby, whose memories of Shields date to their Edmonds High School days. “We were debate partners,” said Scobby, now living in the northeast Washington town of Newport. “We went through all the phases of life together. He was my brother, not just a close friend. He was my brother for 53 years.”

The son of Jim and Beulah Shields, Jim Shields was born July 10, 1948, and raised in Edmonds. A 1966 graduate of Edmonds High, he and Betsy met as Everett Junior College students. She went on to a career at Everett Community College, where she was a program manager in student services.

Jim Shields also attended Western Washington University and the University of Washington and had worked for Snohomish County’s juvenile court. He was assistant director of the Everett parks department when he retired in 1999 after 30 years with the city.

Bob Cooper, Everett’s parks director from 1983 to 2002, said Shields was recreation superintendent before becoming assistant director in 1983.

“Jim was just a great No. 2,” Cooper said. “He was happy working in the background. He took on the difficult challenges. He’d go to the testy neighborhood meetings, handle citizen concerns and find solutions. He was a steady hard-worker who did everything he could to improve the community.”

Early on, Shields was involved with Everyone’s Alley, a 1970s teen center on Hewitt Avenue. Betsy Shields remembers helping check kids in for dances — and asking them to leave any knives or guns in a contraband box at the door. Pregnant at the time, she was a volunteer. “Jim and I were a team,” she said.

Herald archives show Shields took on park issues large and small — lifeguard training, the need for ballfields, tree cutting, vandalism, even management of Forest Park’s peacock and peahen flock.

Retirement from Everett didn’t mean the end of a career. Shields later worked for Boeing in several administrative jobs.

After suffering a stroke in 2002, his focus turned to Camano. Elected as a Camano Island Fire Department commissioner in 2002, he served until 2008. And from 2011 through this year, Shields was on the Camano Center board of directors.

“He was certainly dedicated to the center’s success and its mission,” said George Llewellyn, president of the Camano Center’s board. More than a senior center, the nonprofit is a community hub that has a thrift shop, holds special events and reaches out to families.

“He was a mentor to me when I first came on the board,” Llewellyn said.

Betsy Shields credits her husband for helping the Camano Center build “a solid, professional board” and creating a strategic plan for the facility.

His service to community began in boyhood. After earning the rank of Eagle Scout, Shields helped at the Fire Mountain Scout Camp near Mount Vernon. Their son James also became an Eagle Scout, Betsy Shields said.

Camano Island, where they spent all their married years, was part of Jim Shields’ family history. His grandparents, Henning and Eleanor Pearson, had a cabin near Maple Grove Resort on the island. After Jim and Betsy Shields were married, on Aug. 23, 1969, they lived in the cabin before building their house next door.

For years, they commuted together to their jobs in Everett. Shields was also involved for years in the Stanwood-Camano Fair.

On the day he drove away for the last time, Betsy Shields said her husband “blew me kisses from the truck.”

When she first met him at Everett Junior College, they were dating other people but shared a circle of friends. “We double-dated,” she said. Love won out, though. “We had 50 years together. We loved each other,” she said.

In May, they hosted a reunion of parks department retirees. “They all came — and I’m so glad we did it,” she said.

“The thing about him, he was always helping people,” Scobby said. Recalling his friend as “a lifelong Democrat,” Scobby said Shields was interested in politics way back in high school. He brought some hot-button speakers to campus in junior college, Scobby said.

“Then he went to work for the city. He was always looking for the solution,” Scobby said.

“His passing was a huge loss for both communities, Everett and Stanwood-Camano,” Cooper said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

In memory

Donations in Jim Shields’ name may be sent to Camano Center, 606 Arrowhead Road, Camano Island WA 98282 or to Stanwood Cooperative Preschool, P.O. Box 1801, Stanwood, WA 98292. A celebration of life is planned for next month on Camano Island.