James Alfred Reynolds Sr., son of Emma Marie & Raymond F. Reynolds, of Hillsdale, N.Y., died in Florida on Sunday January 30, 2022, from complications of COVID along with pre-existing health conditions. He was 82 years old.
He was born on March 15, 1939, at the family’s Hillsdale home with no doctor, the fifth of eleven children. As a young boy, he acquired the nickname “Pork” because growing up, he used to clean up what everyone left on their plates.
He graduated from Roe Jan High School in Hillsdale in 1957, where he was a member of the Fire Crew, the Entertainment Committee, the Varsity Choir, Boy’s Athletic Committee, and Varsity Track (earning many accolades as part of a track team that held a long-standing relay record for decades). He enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1958, serving for two years before taking a position at Ward’s Nursery in Great Barrington, Mass.
He married his first wife, Julia M. Peck (Egremont, MA), on June 16, 1962, and they had seven children: Doreen, Robin, Cheryl, Tom, Jim Jr, Jill, and Alan. They divorced in June 1979. He married Janice Sohl Tuccio (Lee, MA) in 1982, helping to raise her four children: Chuck, Dale, Susan, and Janice.
He worked as a landscaper for Ward’s Nursery for over 40 years, and part-time for Craig Decker Landscaping. He also tended bar at Graham’s Restaurant on Railroad Street in Great Barrington in the 1970s, and performed various tasks at the Hillsdale House (where some affectionately referred to him as “Poppy”) and the Locker Room Sports Bar in Lee (where they referred to him as “Hacksaw,” after the football linebacker).
He moved down to Bunnell, Florida, but made annual pilgrimages back to his hometown to visit friends and family, and would drop by the Hillsdale House and the Locker Room, where he chatted with regulars and shared many libations and laughs. He was a personable character, a hard worker, a dog lover, an avid baseball fan, and friend to many. He loved the outdoors, sporting events, and horse racing. In recent years, he became an expert cryptogram solver. He liked to be busy, had a good sense of humor, and rarely said an unkind word about anyone.
He is predeceased by his parents, brothers Charles A., Harold A., and Robert W., sisters Ethel M. and Ruth E. Allen, his second wife Janice, and her children Chuck and Susan.
He is survived by his sisters Joyce A. (Ghent, NY), Sandra I. (North Carolina), and Maria Gray (Oklahoma), brothers George E. (Pittsfield, MA) and John W. (El Paso, TX), his former wife’s sons Tom (Sheffield, MA), Jim, and Alan (both Egremont), daughters Doreen Reynolds-Consolati (Egremont), Robin (Florida), Cheryl (Waltham, MA), and Jill E. Kile (Virginia), stepdaughter Janice Tuccio, stepson Dale and his wife Sue Tuccio and their son Chucky, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Per his wishes, no funeral or memorial service is immediately planned. The family will notify loved ones in the future when or if a service will be scheduled.
