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Note: JAMES LYLE DEMARCE
Vita
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Current Position:
Director, Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, Employment Standards Administration, United States Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210.
Appointed head of the Division (Associate Director September 1983; member of the Federal Senior Executive Service since February 1984.
Previous Employment:
March 1980-September 1983, Executive Assistant to the Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, United States Department of Labor
May 1976-March 1980, Attorney-Advisor, Supervisory Attorney and Counsel, Benefits Review Board, Office of the Secretary, United States Department of Labor
1973-1976, Intern, Center for National Policy Review, Washington, D.C.; Teaching Assistant, Basic Legal Techniques, Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of American, Washington, DC
1965-1973, Assistant Professor, History and Humanities, Northwest Missouri state University, Maryville, Missouri; summer 1970 visiting assistant professor, Department of History, University of Missouri-Columbia
1957-1965, Miscellaneous student, summer, and part time jobs as farm laborer, work in Cady Cheese Factory (Pierce County, Wisconsin) and Connell Orchards, college maintenance and grounds crew, gardener, research and grading assistant, library page, etc.
EDUCATION
Law School:
1973-1976, Columbus School of Law, The Carolic University of American, Washington, DC; member, Law Review; J.D. 1976; Member Virginia State Bar #15895
Graduate Study:
1964-1965, Deutsch-Amerikanische Austauschdienst grant for study in Germany
1962-1964, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, graduate study in Modern European History (adviser Dr. Gordon Craig), Stanford University, Palo Alto, California; M.A. 196
1961-1962, Fulbright Scholar, study of history and political science, Friedrich-Alexander Universitaet, Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany (adviser Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schoeps)
College:
1957-1961, Wisconsin State College at River Falls, B.A. 1961; majors in history and political science, minor in German (adviser Dr. Edward N. Peterson)
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13 April 2010
Statement of US Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis regarding death
of James DeMarce, director of coal mine workers` compensation division
WASHINGTON Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement regarding the death of James L. DeMarce, director of the U.S. Department of Labor`s Office of Workers` Compensation Programs Division of Coal Mine Workers` Compensation:
We at the U.S. Department of Labor are deeply saddened to learn of the sudden death of Jim DeMarce, who served as the director of the department`s Office of Workers` Compensation Programs Division of Coal Mine Workers` Compensation for more than 25 years.
I extend my sincerest condolences to Jim`s wife, Virginia, and their three children, Karl, John and Josephine, as well as to their five grandchildren.
For many years, Jim has been the face and soul of the department`s black lung benefits program for everyone from union officials and mine workers, to members of the coal industry, to state workers` compensation officials, to congressional staffers and to every Labor Department staff person who contributed to making this program work. All of them relied upon Jim`s encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of the program, his rock-solid judgment and his unflagging support for coal miners facing black lung, a terrible, man-made illness.
Jim was the consummate civil servant, in the best sense of that term. He cared about the workers his program served and about his co-workers at the Labor Department. He will be deeply missed by all of us.
James DeMarce lived in Arlington, Va.
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Biography of Jim DeMarce (written for his funeral service; slightly modified with additional information that came in subsequently).
James Lyle DeMarce was born October 2, 1939, in Pepin, Pepin County, Wisconsin, son of Lyle James and Eleanor May (Nelson) DeMarce, the product of an unlikely melding of French-Canadian and Swedish heritage, with bits and dabs of German (a mercenary soldier stationed in Canada during the American Revolution), northern Irish (an immigrant to Canada), and New England (17th century Boston; just passing through Ontario on the way to Wisconsin) along the way. He was an only child.
Jim attended rural one-room, eight-grade schools in Pepin and Pierce Counties, Wisconsin. In 1953, he was confirmed by Pastor Karl Nolting at St. John`s Lutheran Church (WELS) at Hatchville near Spring Valley, Wisconsin. He duly memorized Luther`s Small Catechism and could quote it at length from memory over a half-century later. During high school at Spring Valley, Wisconsin, he was a member of the Future Farmers of America and worked part time for Connell Orchards it was years before he could look an apple in the face again and the Cady Cheese Factory, from which he departed with an abiding affection for absolutely fresh Colby.
Jim's father only had an 8th grade education and seriously wanted his son to have a job -- any job, but preferably a lawyer -- in which he could wear a white shirt and carry a briefcase. At the time of the funeral, DOL sent the family a digitized version of his official portrait. Styles have changed so much that in the official portrait, he was wearing a colored shirt. He also, on his way back and forth to work on the Metro, carried a canvas tote bag with a logo on it rather than a traditional briefcase.
As the first member of his immediate family to attend college (his Aunt Vera Helgeson went to normal school and completed her degree later in life), he went to nearby Wisconsin State College in River Falls, graduating in 1961 with a major in political science and history. The influence of his major professor and advisor there, Dr. Edward N. Peterson, remained with him throughout his life.
During his senior year in college, he was awarded both a Fulbright Scholarship and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Accepting the first and deferring the second, he left for a year of study in modern German history at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet, Erlangen, Germany, under Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Schoeps.
On the ship M.S. Berlin, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, he was contacted by Virginia Easley, a student from Missouri also on her way to Erlangen and looking for someone to help her carry her foot locker (the name DeMarce was alphabetically the first on the list provided by the Fulbright advisor). He always said that he decided to marry her the first time he saw her. He kept turning up in her vicinity. She kept saying that she had to go to the library. After about six weeks of this, having spotted her drinking a cup of coffee at Tchibo, Germany`s early version of Starbucks, he asked her to go with him into the park behind the university administration building. Somewhat bewildered, she followed. Having seated her on a bench, he said, Believe it or not, I have been attempting to court you. Since you don`t appear to have noticed, I thought I might as well skip over the rest of the ordinary intermediate steps and get directly to the point that I want to marry you. Jim was not a man who suffered from commitment issues. So they got engaged.
Returning to the U.S. in August 1962, they married at Virginia`s home in Columbia, Missouri and then proceeded west with all their worldly possessions in the back seat of a VW Beetle to begin graduate study in history at Stanford University. Jim received his M.A. in Modern European History, under major professor and advisor Gordon Craig, from Stanford University in June 1963. During the academic year 1964-1965, he returned to Germany to do dissertation research on a German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship.
From fall 1965 through spring 1973, Jim taught history and humanities in the Department of Social Studies, Northwest Missouri State College, Maryville, Missouri. During his last year there, as he considered the notes he had accumulated toward his doctoral dissertation, he announced that he now knew far more about German election statistics during the 1920s than any reasonable person would ever need to know and thought he would rather find a vocation that would allow him to make a real difference in people`s lives. He packed the notes away in a crate and applied to law school the criterion for which was that the family needed to find a geographical area which had both a law school that would admit Jim and a college or university that would hire Virginia. In the end, the choice came down to either San Diego, California, or the Washington, DC, area.
They flipped a coin and moved to Falls Church in 1973, joining Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. Their oldest son, Karl, entered kindergarten at Grace when the school opened that same year (along with Peggy Howard, now Miller, and Paul Keiser, Bernie Keiser`s son). Through a period of 37 years, three children, and several grandchildren, Jim remained a hearty and steadfast supporter of Grace Lutheran School and its aims.
During his years as a member of Grace, he served several terms on the Board of Christian Education, served as an elder, served as chairman of the Board of Elders, and served as chairman of the congregation, as well as being on committees too numerous to mention, some sessions of which occasionally stressed his firm adherence to the principle of always putting the best construction on everything. He was a regular participant in the sandwiches for the homeless program and brought his grandchildren with him.
Jim received his J.D. degree in 1976 from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. He passed the Virginia State Bar exam that summer and joined the US Department of Labor as an attorney for the Benefits Review Board. After several positions, all in the field of workers` compensation programs, in 1984 he entered the Senior Executive Service and was appointed as Associate Director, Division of Coal Mine Workers` Compensation Programs [Black Lung], Office of Workers` Compensation Programs, US Department of Labor, in 1984, subsequently becoming Director.
Not having retired at 62, nor at 65, he still held this position at the time of his death on April 12, 2010. It is doubtful that he ever would have retired. His frequently-cited models for professional longevity included Senator Byrd of West Virginia and Justice Stevens. Upon his death, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis released the following public statement:
"For many years, Jim has been the face and soul of the department`s black lung benefits program for everyone from union officials and mine workers, to members of the coal industry, to state workers` compensation officials, to congressional staffers and to every Labor Department staff person who contributed to making this program work. All of them relied upon Jim`s encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of the program, his rock-solid judgment and his unflagging support for coal miners facing black lung, a terrible, man-made illness.
"Jim was the consummate civil servant, in the best sense of that term. He cared about the workers his program served and about his co-workers at the Labor Department. He will be deeply missed by all of us."
He never went to work without a copy of the United States Constitution in the inner pocket of his jacket. Upon occasion, he pulled it out and read from it to political appointees.
During the last three weeks of his tenure as Director, Jim possibly had more fun in his work than ever before. Some long-desired amendments to the Black Lung Benefits Act, sponsored by Senator Byrd, passed Congress and were signed into law in the form of a few comparatively unobtrusive pages in the Health Reform bill. He got to defend these provisions in several news conferences with reporters from such venues as the Charleston Gazette. He . . .
"publicly disagreed with the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce about the Chamber's characterization of the changes in the Black Lung Program. The Chamber's President was quoted as saying that the changes in the program could cost $1 billion and would be a "job killer" for West Virginia.
"'I do not believe that is correct,' DeMarce said in a conference call with coalfield reporters. In fact, DeMarce warned that spreading inflated estimates of the potential costs could be what harms jobs and the economy."
There are advantages in the civil service to having been in the same position so long as to have become an institution.
Jim`s hobbies included gardening and listening to bluegrass music, often simultaneously. He loved every individual black raspberry and tomato that grew in his yard. If he, reluctantly, had to prune a bush, he would carefully snip the cuttings into lengths about an inch long, while promising them that they could continue to contribute in the form of mulch or compost. He was also a great fan of Garrison Keillor`s Prairie Home Companion and had a large collection of CDs of historical and contemporary labor music, much of it rather raucous.
Jim and Virginia had three children. Karl, married to Brenda Russell, is an associate circuit judge in Scotland County, Missouri. John, married to Melinda Root, is a data base manager for the Friends of the National Zoo. Josie, married to Brian Babcock, is a clinical psychologist at the VA hospital in Salem, Virginia.
They say that there is no way that it`s possible for them to express what a good dad he was to them.
Three of their grandchildren, Cathe (who now wants to be called Cat), Marie, and Renee, have stayed with Jim and Virginia and attended GLS for their middle school years. Another, William, will be starting seventh grade at GLS next fall. Susannah is yet to come.
Preferred charities:
Col. Robert Jenkinson Memorial Scholarship Fund, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS), 3233 Annandale Road, Falls Church, Virginia 22042
Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104
Bluegrass Country, WAMU 88.5, ATTN: Membership, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016-8082
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