By Jon C. Coe
James R. Coe, 83 years old of Lake Isabella California sadly left us July 9th, 2024. Jim’s unique talents blended art and technology, leading him on a memorable life journey. Jim was born in Logan Utah, the sixth child and last son of Francis and Edith Coe. The family lived in Berlin Germany during the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49. While growing up in Newhall and Upland California, Jim built and flew kites and model gliders. Later he would himself fly in kite-like hang gliders and pilot a full-sized glider aircraft. Jim graduated from Upland High School in 1959 where his art and photographic skills emerged leading to further art degrees at the College of San Mateo in 1961 and graduation from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1964 with a focus in fine art photography. A special memory was spending a day studying with renowned nature photographer Ansel Adams in his private study. Jim also enjoyed electronics, building sound systems from kits. Living in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury Hippy district Jim hung out with then unknown rock star Janis Joplin and her band. Janis suggested Jim contact the newly forming rock band Jefferson Airplane who were looking for a soundman.
Jim toured the US with the Airplane and their spin-off bands Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship from 1965-1974. Lead singer Grace Slick remembered Jim building her a portable humidifier which helped her voice recover after concerts. When not touring, Jim designed black-box electronics creating unique sounds used by rock bands in recording studios. He further combined art and technology by helping develop and perform psychedelic light shows at the Filmore Auditorium. An image of this appears on the cover of Jefferson Airplane’s best-selling album White Rabbit.
Later, Jim was a founding partner of Frank Hubach Associates in Berkeley for six years. Self-taught, he became an international vibration and acoustics consulting engineer working in the semiconductor industry. Jim surveyed proposed microchip factory and electron microscope sites across the US and in Taiwan, England, France, and Spain. Still later Jim became a computer consultant and website designer based in Mill Valley and published online how-to instruction programs for creating digital art. Jim moved to the Lake Isabella area in 2015, joining his sister Emily Diggles and niece Teri Vellutini, both now deceased. He became active in the Lake Isabella Art Association, recently retiring as their president, and volunteered repairing donated computers at a local thrift shop. Jim is greatly missed by his dear friends in Lake Isabella, his surviving brother Jon C. Coe in Australia, nieces/nephews and grandnieces/nephews across the US. A memorial video will be available online beginning September 1, 2024. Watch “Memorial for James R. Coe” at https://www.youtube.com/@southcreekmediallc8607.
