Remembering James Fredric Cairns

James Fredric Cairns

1942 - 2025

It is with loving gratitude for a life well-lived, that we share that James Fredric Cairns of Orillia, Ontario passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 17, 2025, surrounded by his loving family. Jim was 82 years old. He is survived by his devoted wife of 50 years, Sheila (Skakum), his loving children Jody Cairns, Dusty Cairns (Kevin), Sara Jo Ottewell (Scott), Kit Cairns (Laura), his five grandchildren Walden and Canyon Cairns, P.J. Graham, Abbigail and Douglas Ottewell, and his brothers John Cairns (Laurie) and Ken Cairns (Lynda).

Jim was born in El Paso, Texas on July 2, 1942 to Julia Reed and Fred Cairns, a Unitarian minister. He was the middle child. When Jim was 12, his family relocated to Canada.

Jim had many passions from music to athletics to wood-working to social activism. He lived for many years on a small farm outside of the hamlet of Harrington where he lived by the principles of sustainability and self-sufficiency with his four children and wife, Sheila. Jim reached so many people in so many walks of life.

As an academic, Jim attended both the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and Acadia University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts. He attended McMaster University and earned his Masters Degree in Sociology. He then went on to the University of Berkeley, California where he worked on Doctorate level courses in Sociology.

In athletics, Jim was a competitive high school track and field athlete, hockey player and football player. He was also an avid and competitive road cyclist and continued riding his bike daily for multiple miles as recently as three years ago. He played varsity football as a running back for the UWO as well as at Acadia University. After his post-secondary education, Jim coached minor hockey in Embro and Tavistock and Juvenile level hockey in Thamesford. He wrote the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) Level 5 Conditioning and Training Modules for hockey and was the assistant coach of the UWO hockey team. Jim spent 10 years as the head of what was then known as Ryerson Polytechnic Institute's Men’s Hockey Program. When he took over Ryerson's hockey team, they were 0-32. Within the first 3 years with Jim

being the head coach, Ryerson's hockey team made it to the Ontario Universities Athletics Association (OUAA) semi-finals. During his time at Ryerson, he also started the Inaugural Duracell Challenge hockey tournament.

In the arts, Jim was a member of the Perth County Conspiracy Does Not Exist, who played their music and entertained in many venues including the Black Swan in Stratford, Massey Hall in Toronto as well as toured across Canada. As an entrepreneur, he owned and operated GMT as a woodworking artisan who designed and created handmade wooden furniture and toys where he and his business and life partner, Sheila, attended the first-ever One of A Kind Craft Show in Toronto. He was one of the initial exhibitors at the Home County Folk Festival in London. He was the organizer of the Forest City Craft Sale in London. Jim was also selected by the Canadian Arts Council to represent Ontario as an artisan during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

In the horse industry, Jim and Sheila owned and operated Windsong Stables in Orono, Ontario a hunter jumper boarding facility that hosted schooling shows and traveled to provincial and national level horse shows. It is here that Jim was reunited with his love of horses where he spent much time with wife Sheila traveling to horse shows and on weeks-long back-country horse camping trips.

During his retirement, Jim worked as a mentor at Newark Group Home where the boys that lived there would come out to Jim's wood shop. There, he taught the boys not only how to use the power tools and the satisfaction of manual labour, but where he taught them that they all had good inside them and that with someone believing in them and guiding them, all people can do great things.

Jim loved to see the benefits of his hard work. He took great pride in manual labour and could always be found working on timeless projects such as painting, cutting grass, weed trimming, gardening, digging fence posts and cutting firewood.

In his later years, Jim loved to travel, and together with Sheila, and often their children and grandkids, set foot within every province and territory that this wonderful country has to offer.

Jim is fondly remembered for his life-long love of music, and even up to his last days, enjoyed moving to the beat of a good song. He was one of the hardest working and goal-oriented individuals one could ever know. His ability to develop and maintain long-lasting, trusting and respectful relationships with whom he interacted was truly unique to Jim.

We are all grateful for the opportunity to have experienced the impact of his love, his support and his guidance.

We would also like to send our sincere thanks to all the staff at Oak Terrace Long Term Care Home in Orillia for their excellent care, exceptional generosity and kindness.

The family will be hosting a celebration of life in Jim's honour at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Parkinson Canada. Please also consider planting a tree to honour his philosophy of sustainability.

https://donate.parkinson.ca/site/Donation2?idb=392981484&5800.donation=form1&DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=1541&df_id=5800&mfc_pref=T&idb=0

- The Cairns Family.