Jim Fleischmann Obituary (2021) – Missoula, MT

Jim “Flash” Fleischmann

Jim “Flash” Fleischmann died peacefully on Wednesday June 16, 2021.

“A lion sleeps tonight….To say Flash was a lion of community organizing is like saying wine is excellent, or songs will make life improved. For my technology of organizers, operatives, and normal great(ish)-doers, Flash was the water resource where we all went to consume.” – Jim Messina

Born July 18, 1952 to Mary and Jeff Fleischmann, Jim put in a great deal of his childhood in Exeter, NH just before his household relocated to a 150 12 months aged farmhouse in Sandwich, NH. Jim’s deep like of The Farm life on with his family members and numerous mates. Inspite of trekking west to Montana in his early twenties, Jim never dropped sight of his New England roots and really like of Maine Lobster.

Jim graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1974 with a degree in Visible and Environmental Scientific tests, but not prior to dropping out for a spell to be a cowboy in Montana’s Tom Miner Basin. The arc of his life’s operate traced his issue for financial and social justice, which was born through his time as a photographer for the first periodical devoted completely to citizens of the Appalachian mountain location. This led him to function with Carolina Action, a neighborhood corporation for very low- and reasonable-earnings persons, in the course of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jim was a goliath of an organizer who by no means stopped caring about the individuals and his communities.

Jim settled in Montana in 1985. When he was not chaotic making Montana People’s Motion, a local community group committed to social and economic justice, Jim appreciated Montana’s attractive rivers and mountains. His can-do frame of mind, exciting-loving comradery and sufficient hunger for beer and barbeques, motivated generations of organizers and activists in Montana and over and above. Jim labored tricky to develop a reasonable and equitable Montana, including notable operate attained with Janet Robideau of Indian Peoples Action, the Montana Group Labor Coalition, and the Coalition for Nursing House Reform. Jim’s political leadership left its mark in Missoula: forming the Missoula New Party in 1993, aiding elect City Council customers and the Mayor, and correctly pushing for recycling, intelligent growth administration, and a residing wage ordinance. Jim also served as the campaign manager for Senator Max Baucus’s final re-election. His political instincts were being razor sharp and his campaign expertise finely honed, but most importantly he loved the individuals he labored with and for.

Starting up all-around 2008, Jim expert a gradual decrease in his muscle mass handle, coordination, and memory. At first misdiagnosed as Lyme sickness, the Mayo clinic discovered his condition as cerebellar ataxia in 2018. For this sort of a spitfire person of action, investing several years on the sideline was heartbreaking to Jim, his relatives and good friends. Irrespective of the suffering he endured and qualities he shed, Jim taken care of his wry humor, constructive frame of mind, and his alluring, twinkly smile. His power in the encounter of devastating adversity was inspiring. Alongside his journey, Jim introduced irreverent excellent humor, a flavor for very good whiskey and beer, and an at any time-useful guitar. His colleagues usually concluded function by hanging out with Jim all night speaking about the path to a just entire world. On his ultimate night time, Jim’s young children took him on a bourbon-accompanied stroll down memory lane.

The appreciate of Jim’s existence ended up his young children, Hannah, Mae, and Ben. His passion and like for music, Montana, and neighborhood lives on inside of them. Jim is survived by his small children, his mother Mary, and siblings Ellen, Tom, and Andy.

A celebration of Flash’s everyday living will be held Sept 11. Playing cards may possibly be sent c/o Ben Fitch-Fleischmann, 2126 Collins Ln, Missoula MT 59802. Memorial donations will be collected and contributed to guidance a community assembly and collecting put in Missoula for civic action. For specifics, electronic mail [email protected]