Guild Companion, co-founder of the Ruskin Society of North America and tireless, passionate and eloquent Ruskinian James Spates is 80 next week. In celebration, friends and colleagues from both sides of the Atlantic pay tribute to all that he means to them. Happy Birthday Jim, from everyone at the Ruskin Society of North America, the Ruskin Art Club & the Guild of St George.

SARA ATWOOD (who gathered these tributes to Jim on behalf of the Ruskin Society of North America and the Ruskin Art Club)

I met Jim early on in my 'Ruskin life,' just out of graduate school. I'd heard about him from Alan Davis, whose deep knowledge of Ruskin and many other things besides had already greatly enriched my life and work. In connecting me with Jim, he enriched it further. Jim's generosity, enthusiasm, and boundless admiration for Ruskin were immediately evident. He was happy to meet a fledgling Ruskinian and eager to encourage my interest and work. Over the years Jim became a friend as well as a colleague and I came to treasure his kindness, insight, and unfailingly upbeat perspective. Jim is one of the most positive people I know, delighted by life and experience (much like his dear friend and mentor, Van Akin Burd). I have so much to thank Jim for--his professional and personal support; his work, from which I've learned so much; his partnership in various Ruskin-related projects; and the Library Edition I purchased on his thoughtful tip. I could go on. Jim is a rare friend, who has made my life brighter by being a part of it. I wish him the happiest of birthdays. 

PAUL DAWSON

I first met that irrepressible force of nature that is known and loved by Ruskin scholars as Jim Spates, on his first visit to speak at Brantwood back in the 1990s. After many subsequent visits by Jim to England and by me to America, I count him among my dearest friends. I found this photograph of Jim, taken at Sandgate (see left), as he set out on one of his early ‘On the Old Road’ tours of Europe following in Ruskin’s footsteps. It must be twenty years since that day when I met him at Gatwick Airport, and brought him to my home to look through my Library, share lunch, and then get on the road to Sandgate. As I look at it again, I see the enthusiasm and joy of the occasion and remember the fellowship of those brief first steps on Ruskin’s road. I would have loved to go further with him, but I had to return to work later that same evening. I would later learn that his interaction with the locals gained more new friendships before he crossed the channel, having quizzed them all on Ruskin, and probably taught them more than he learned! Over the years he has been friend, confidante and advisor. His energy only recently and temporarily diminished is happily being restored, and this significant birthday a mere milestone on his own road. There is only one Jim Spates, and what an honour and pleasure it is to call him a friend. 

STUART EAGLES

Enthusiasm is infectious, and through his scholarship, lectures and pioneering blog, Jim Spates is responsible for a Ruskin pandemic. He has engaged new audiences and promoted Ruskin’s enduring relevance with matchless energy and optimism. His unwavering support and encouragement of my own endeavours, which I appreciate more than I could ever hope adequately to express, is characteristic of his contribution to the international Ruskin community that he has done so much to fashion and sustain.

Jim has developed the work of two of his scholarly heroes in impressive and important ways. I refer to Helen Gill Viljoen, and Van Akin Burd. His touchingly close relationship with Van facilitated some delightful late scholarly blooms and fruitful foreign trips that helped Van to reach new generations of scholars. Indeed, I first met Jim, Van, and another great American scholar, John Rosenberg, at the unforgettable conference and celebration held in Lancaster and at Brantwood in 2000 to mark the centenary of Ruskin’s death.

Jim and I have become firm friends. Who, indeed, could fail to find friendship with Jim Spates? Whenever I picture him, I see a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye. It would be impossible not to reciprocate.

When I managed the Guild’s annual magazine, The Companion, Jim could always be depended on to provide comprehensive ‘American Notes’—and he always responded with patience and understanding whenever the limits of space obliged the editor to make a nip and tuck here and there.

Thank you to Sara Atwood and the RSNA. It is a privilege and an honour to pay tribute to Jim Spates, one of Ruskin’s most dedicated and enthusiastic ambassadors—one of the greatest promotors of Ruskin around the globe. I look forward, with Spatesean positivity, to the great work that lies ahead. In Ruskin we serve.

KATERI EWING

Happiest of birthdays to you, dear Jim. What a gracious life you are leading. You have opened up so many doors to discovery for me, Ruskinian and otherwise, since I’ve known you, and I imagine there are thousands of others who could say the same. Your faith in the goodness and the capability of the human spirit is remarkable and inspiring. May all good blessings be upon you now and always. You are truly one of a kind and we are so fortunate for your lifetime of continued work, good and true—and I am so fortunate for your friendship. Many thanks from my warmest heart.

CYNTHIA GAMBLE

Dear Jim, I have many fond memories of our Normandy tours, especially of Rouen and Caen. Happy days! Wishing you all the best and all things Ruskinian, or almost all!

TIM HOLTON

Like his great hero, Jim Spates is a consummate teacher. The number of minds he’s not only penetrated but, I’d venture to say, re-shaped by tirelessly spreading the great wisdom of John Ruskin is probably too vast to estimate—especially as his own unflagging spirit, in his passion for teaching, has no doubt proliferated right along with his sharing of Ruskin’s words; such passion being for immeasurable time part of the proliferation of the great wealth that Ruskin pointed our eyes to—the only true wealth: life. And there you have one of Ruskin’s lessons conveyed—and proudly upheld—by Jim: never be afraid of long sentences! They do, perhaps, have something to do with long lives!

Happiest (so far) of birthdays to you, Jim! And let me thank you on this occasion for traveling more than once all the way out to Berkeley (this sometime outpost of Ruskinian ideals) to teach, and for helping to bring me into the fold of Ruskin—and, on one of those trips, into the fold of the Guild of St George!

HOWARD AND PAMELA HULL

The great thing about you, Jim, is that your remarkable passion for Ruskin has such generosity at its heart. You inspire all of us with your infectious energy, innate sensitivity and kindness, believing Ruskin to be not only true (as a craftsman’s work is true), but truly beautiful. In the process you’ve defended him from the many grievous wrongs done to his memory, determined to set straight the twisted tellings of his life, and rescued the glory not just of his words, but of his thinking. You’ve been tireless in giving this gift of Ruskin to all that you can. What more can I say?  Happy Birthday! Brantwood loves ya!

DR KAY J WALTER

Dr James L. Spates was a figure of story in my mind long before I met him, to nearly a mythic scale. Many people whom I know and respect spoke of him with good-natured familiarity. Among these tales one note rang through as a leitmotif: All of them were deeply fond of Jim. We first met when he collected me at the airport in Buffalo for our ride to Roycroft, and I learned why. Jim is an undeniable force for compassion in the world. He was kind and friendly from the first words we exchanged, no awkward handshakes from Jim! We were instantly friends, and the days since then have only begun to unfold the values we hold in common such as a love for our students, the determination to champion their success, and the innate urge to encourage novice scholars. At least, those are the attributes I am trying to develop in my own professional life. Jim always demonstrates them in spades. His enthusiasm for all things Ruskin, his inclination to make allowances for the most human of foibles, his cheerful approach to life, and his profoundly intellectual approach to all challenges and considerations are among his most endearing qualities, but what I admire most about Jim Spates are his indomitable good humor and his quickness to embrace creative ideas—that and the fact that he seems to genuinely enjoy people, even me. If the world has been blessed with 80 years of Jim to date, that’s far short of enough. I hope there are 80 more to offer! I wish Jim the happiest of birthdays and many more even happier to come.

CLIVE WILMER

The Ruskin revival began in the United States – with the work of Helen Gill Viljoen, Van Akin Burd and John D. Rosenberg. On Jim’s 80th birthday, it is good to be reminded of that, because it is to their tradition that he belongs. I think of his important book, The Imperfect Round, which in effect completes Viljoen’s work; of his faithful friendship with Van Burd; and of the fact that he discovered Ruskin through Rosenberg’s anthology. To these Americans, all Ruskinians owe gratitude.

I myself owe it especially to Jim, who has been my friend for more than thirty years. We have got together in many different places – in England, America and Italy – but we first met when, still quite new to Ruskin, he came to Britain for a tour of the Ruskin sites. In a characteristically warm and spontaneous moment, he phoned me up to say he was visiting Cambridge and wanted to meet me. We hit it off immediately, combining good cheer with scholarly enthusiasm. It may have been on that occasion that I took him to see the twenty-five Turners donated by Ruskin to the Fitzwilliam Museum; on subsequent occasions – he has written the colourful story with great gusto – we obtained Library Editions for one another. 

Jim is currently working on a book about Ruskin’s ‘sociology’. This is, I’d guess, a deliberate misnomer. A sociologist by training, Jim was taught that sociology makes no ethical judgements. After years working with that assumption, he came to the conclusion that it was wrong, and that sociology should ask the Platonic question ‘What is the Good Society?’ In this, Jim proved himself a true Ruskinian.

Happy birthday, Jim. Thank you for your friendship and your selfless dedication to Ruskin’s work. Hugs across the waves, mate!