I AM WILSHIRE - JIM SELF

Count on him

After Jim Self’s retirement in 1991, he began a volunteer career counting Wilshire’s tithes and offerings on Monday mornings.

“At first I worked with Benny Trott and Tom Bratcher and later with Byron Davis and Winnie McMichael,” he said. “Now Fred Cullum, Winnie and I open the envelopes and count the cash. Then we add up the checks and arrive at a total for the bank deposit. It’s a lot of fun and fellowship, and if you can count to 10, you can do it.”

Jim was born in Bibb County, Ala., between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. In high school, he was a clerk for a department store and drove a truck delivering furniture. He also clerked at a hardware store and delivered kegs of nails.

He graduated from high school in 1943. “Two weeks later, I joined the Navy so I wouldn’t get drafted,” he said. “I knew I’d rather ride than walk” in the infantry.

After boot camp in Pensacola, Fla., Jim trained to be an aviation machinist and gunner.

“I ended up in a patrol bomb squadron flying the Navy version of the B-24,” he said. “I ended up on Okinawa in 1945, so I saw a little bit of action.”

After his discharge in November 1946, he enrolled at the University of Alabama, where he earned a bachelor of science in business degree in three years, including two summers.

The GI Bill funded Jim’s entire education, including room and board, so he calls it “one of the best things our government ever did.” He even finished school in the black, as he’d saved some money while in the Navy.

When he graduated in December 1949, a steel strike made jobs hard to find, so he worked temporarily for his home county’s board of education.

“For several months, I taught veterans who hadn’t graduated from high school,” he said. Later he found a position with a company that manufactured pressure pipe for the water and wastewater industry.

Jim worked in sales with that company for 40 years, until his retirement in 1991. He began in the home office in Birmingham, then worked in Chicago, Kansas City and Birmingham again before settling permanently in Dallas in 1962.

“I liked Dallas, and by that time I had a voice in where I’d go,” he said.

The Selfs raised three boys in Dallas. His two surviving sons, along with five grandsons and one granddaughter, live in the Dallas area.

Jim’s college roommate introduced him to his first wife, Betty, in Birmingham. They were married in September 1952 and were married for 37 years until her death in 1989.

“I was born a Baptist, I guess, and I lived across from the First Baptist Church in West Blocton, Ala.,” he said. “As a teenager, I waited until I could hear the singing start” as a signal that it was time to go to the service.

When the Selfs moved to Dallas, they visited several churches. “Then Betty announced we were joining Wilshire,” he said. They became members in 1963.

Over the years, he has served on several committees, including the Committee on Committees, the Personnel Committee and the Stewardship Development Committee. He became a deacon in the early 1990s and recently began filling out a term through the end of the year. He is a member of Open Bible Class.

Jim knew who Margaret Buckley was but became better acquainted with her when both were greeters at the office door one Sunday.

“We kind of flirted with each other and it sort of mushroomed on us,” he said. They were married a little over a year later in George Mason’s office. Teresa Meyer, Charlene James and Kay Simons were witnesses and “bridesmaids.”

Since their marriage in March 2004, the Selfs have enjoyed traveling.

“We went to Alaska with Preston and Mary Lynne Bright and other Wilshire members, and we went to England this summer with The Centurymen,” he said. They recently joined the Wilshire Adventurers on their trip to New England and are going to Hawaii at Christmastime.

“We’re spending our kids’ inheritance,” Jim joked.

“Wilshire has been good to my family,” he said on a more serious note. “We’ve met a lot of good people. It’s the people that keep me going.”