by Mary Knippel

Photo credit: Mary Knippel

From the blue lakes of Minnesota to the ocean blue of the Pacific, Pacifica resident Helen James has always been a student of life, eager to share the lessons she has learned, whether they came from standing in front of the classroom or standing behind a video camera. I  recently sat down with her at Pacifica’s Salada Beach Café as she reminisced about learning to take center stage in her high school drama club, honing her skills as  a teacher and historian, and the juggling act of being a wife and mother.

James received her B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1946, and eventually found a job as a recreation director for a city youth program in Hayes Valley. She later studied law for a short time, but a young man named Lowell came along with a different definition of court procedure.

The James family moved to Pacifica in 1954, and Helen James didn’t drive.“I was home with four children and worried that my brain was going to turn to mush,” she said. When the Pacifica Tribune needed someone to be a community correspondent, James became a kitchen counter journalist, documenting the comings and goings of her neighbors in Pacific Manor.

Always active in the PTA, James served as the chairwoman of bond committees to raise money to build new schools in Pacifica and pondered becoming a teacher. “I was told all you needed to be a substitute teacher was a whistle and a storybook,” James said. In 1961 she began teaching and was drawn to helping children with learning disabilities. She was among the first group of teachers in the state to be hired to teach children with disabilities. James went on to become a reading specialist and a board member of the San Mateo County Reading Association.

Upon her retirement from teaching in 1983, James unwittingly began her  career as a television producer of local high school programs at Pacifica Community Television. She documented classroom activities for almost six years with a program called Education Spotlight, and she has also videotaped every school board meeting for the past 20 years. “They were looking for someone to help with some video equipment they had bought for the Laguna Salada School District,” she said. “When they asked me about it, I just thought they wanted someone to log the equipment in and out, to be sure everything was accounted for.  So I said yes. Lo and behold they actually had a school district program and I was a producer! I started at the top and worked down. I really enjoy it and it’s a fascinating place to volunteer. The wonderful thing is that it is inter-generational.”

James has received much recognition for her work, including the 2005 Pacifica Community Television Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2008 Pacifica Chamber of Commerce Fuchsia Lifetime Achievement Award. And she has also been involved with an award-winning charity.

Pacificans Care presented its 2005 People Who Care Award to Mizpah, Pacifica’s oldest local charitable organization; James has been an integral member of Mizpah since its beginning in 1948 when it was known as Sharp Park’s Little Brown Church Ladies Aid Circle #2. The name was changed to Mizpah Fellowship around 1950, and Mizpah incorporated  as a non-profit corporation in 2002. “I joined Mizpah,” James said, “because it was the only organization at the time that gave out scholarships.”