James Gillies, a former Chestnut Hill resident, died of heart failure at age 66 at St Luke’s Hospital in Allentown on March 26. Gillies worked in the construction and building trades all his life, but his real passions were exploring wild places and local history. He took pride in his ancestral connections to the prominent families of Chestnut Hill and was an amateur historian.
His great-grandfather, John Lawson Gillies, started the well-known J.L. Gillies Fish and Game store, which lasted for over 70 years on Germantown Avenue next to Robertson’s florists. He often talked fondly of a trip he took out west to visit his cousins in Anchorage, Alaska. James planned a trip to Ireland in the fall before he took ill.
According to his brother, John Gillies, “Jim loved history, a passion he inherited from our dad. He had over the years collected historical documents which featured letters from Abraham Lincoln and Jesse James, as well as records he had found from the J.L. Gillies Fish and Game Store. A photograph of John Lawson Gillies is featured on the cover of the book, 'Chestnut Hill' (Arcadia Publishing), and is also on a plaque at the Fresh Market entrance near Hartwell Lane.”
James Gillies grew up on West Meade Street, one of four children of the late Dolores and William Gillies. A 1973 graduate of Our Mother of Consolation grade school, Gillies went on to La Salle High School. He earned All-City honors on the La Salle High School football team, where he played alongside his brothers, Bill and John. He was an excellent basketball player, following in the footsteps of his father, who was a standout player at La Salle High School. He backpacked through Europe the summer after his first year at Shippensburg State College.
While his father was a lieutenant in the Philadelphia Fire Department, Gillies, 18 years old at the time, received a commendation medal for bravery from the City of Philadelphia. He saved the life of a neighbor, Frederick H. Marvin, from a burning building at 122 W. Meade St. in April 1977. Gillies’ heroic act was even featured in that week’s issue of the Local.
John Gillies told the Local last week his brother loved being outside. “When Jim was a teenager, he loved to fish for trout in the Wissahickon at Rex Avenue and for bass and muskies at Green Lane Reservoir and the Perkiomen Creek,” he said. “One of his treasured memories was camping at Poe Valley State Park near Penn State when bears smelled the bacon we were cooking and joined us for breakfast. He also loved riding the waves in an inflatable canoe with our dad in Ocean City, New Jersey.
“Jim … had had a group of loyal friends from the class of La Salle High School, 1977, whose memories stuck with him and sustained him throughout his life. But the most important thing about Jim was his lust for life, either backpacking across Europe, touring Nova Scotia by bike or exploring the streams and byways of Pennsylvania. This is where he was most himself and at peace.”
Gillies’ remains were interred in the family gravesite alongside his mother and father at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, 3301 W. Cheltenham Ave., on April 23. There was no church service. Burial arrangements at Holy Sepulchre were made by the Jacob Ruth Funeral Home in Chestnut Hill. A celebration of life is planned for September of this year.Gillies is survived by his brother Bill (Dallas, Texas), brother John (Switzerland), sister Susan Gillies Ladd (Coatesville) and numerous cousins.
Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
