James Mairs died recently in Westhampton. He was 77.
Mr. Mairs was born in St. Paul and lived in New York City since graduating from college. His career in publishing included senior positions and editor with W.W. Norton Publishing & Company, a privately held, mostly employee-owned, house supporting respected academic, non-fiction, and fictional works. Mr. Mairs followed his “retirement” by forming a private press, Quantuck Lane Press. He assisted hundreds of authors including Pete Seeger (folksinger), and John Silber (Boston University), Bruce Catton, plus celebrated historical, non-fiction, and graphic originators.
Following the death of his father, James L. Mairs, Mr. Mairs’s mother, Alice Klein Mairs, married Frederick Bradford of St. Paul. He and his sister, Bonnie (Alice), grew up in Mendota Heights. He graduated from Saint Paul Academy and Dartmouth, beginning his career with Norton serving a “college route” in the Midwest, driving a despised Chevy II to visit with publishing academics.
In later years, he acquired automobiles and boats more to his liking, including co-ownership of a sailing vessel built and owned by the late Gen. George Patton. The boat, named When and If, was Patton’s dream for retirement, which he ultimately never attained. Mr. Mairs and his partners acquired the vessel at favorable price after it had been tossed onto rocks by a hurricane.
Mr. Mairs is survived by his wife, Gina Webster; and four children, Nina Mairs, Alexandra Tart, Anna Mairs and Will Mairs; and four grandchildren; his sister, Bonnie; and brothers, Fred and John Bradford.
A memorial service is being planned for September.
on Aug 1, 2016