James D. Cape

James D. Cape passed away on Saturday, December 12, 2015. He was born January 17, 1930 in Flint, Michigan. His father was Albert L. Cape, a GM Buick plant manager from Desoto, Missouri, and his mother, Abbey L. Cape, a school teacher from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Both preceded him in death as well as his only sibling, Albert Mercer Cape. Jim attended various elementary and middle schools in Michigan, and finished high school in Milford, where his family had established a successful retail and wholesale ice cream business, Cape's Ice Cream. Jim was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he was awarded BSE (Physics) and MBA degrees. He received a personal letter from the President of the United States inviting Jim to participate in the US Korean police action. After suitable weapon and survival training, he served two years doing research and development at the U.S. Army Biological Center in Frederick, Maryland. After he completed his defense of his country, his first full paying job was at the AEC's Fernald Feed and Materials Plant administered by the Oak Ridge AEC Operations Office. While at Fernald he wrote "Thorium Production Technology", which was in a special c...[more]

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ection of books presented to delegates of the First International Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He worked on projects for AEC Headquarters in Washington and was invited to take a position there in 1960. While he was in AEC Headquarters he headed a program to have books authored and published bringing together new technologies to encourage further use of atomic energy. Catholic University offered night courses to earn a graduate degree in nuclear engineering. Jim enrolled and passed the exam for an MNE but did not complete the dissertation. Years later, CU dropped the dissertation requirement and sent our hero his MNE Degree. Jim was advised to obtain field experience and accepted a position of Assistant Manager for Scientific Information at the Oak Ridge Technical Information Center Extension. He joined DTIE in October, 1968, and stayed until his early retirement in 1985 from what was by then called the Office of Scientific and Technical Information. He was also active in the community in sports where he participated in competitive basketball and tennis. He was particularly active in the arts and was on the boards of the Playhouse, ORCMA, Arts Council, Oak Ridge Arts Center, Sertoma, and Housing Development Corp. of Oak Ridge. He enjoyed the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge., the Breakfast Rotary, and the Oak Ridge Bridge Center. In addition to his parents and brother, he was also preceded in death by the mother of his children, Nancy Barker, and eldest son, Christopher David Cape. He is survived by his lovely and wonderful wife, Victoria Daniel-Cape; children, Geoffrey, of Oak Ridge, Elizabeth, Victoria, and Jennifer, of Knoxville. The family will receive friends at First United Methodist Oak Ridge on Saturday, December 19th from 1:30-3 pm, with a Memorial Service to begin at 3 pm. As Jim enjoyed the intellectualism of Oak Ridge, in lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to the ORCMA, ORICL, or the OR Bridge Center. Gentry Griffey is honored to serve the family and invites you to view and sign their online guestbook below.