James R. Hanley

On December 8, 2020 Jim passed away peacefully at home overlooking Paradise Valley outside of Livingston, MT with his wife Sue of 45 years at his side. Jim did his Irish heritage proud, battling cancer fiercely for three and a half years while always moving forward with his dreams. Cancer found a formidable opponent in Jim.Jim was born July 20, 1944 in Olean NY to John R & Anna (Seba) Hanley and grew up in Little Falls, NJ. He graduated from University of Notre Dame and received a Masters at Colorado State University. He worked at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, PA before heading west to attend University of Colorado. While there he worked at the CU Computing Center and with an international management consulting firm, first associated with CU and later, CSU. With a vision toward Asia he started a career with Hewlett-Packard. This led to 8 years living in Hong Kong and Tokyo, traveling the Asia/Pacific region extensively. Jim and Sue learned the fine art of managing two corporate careers while trying to live in the same hemisphere. While in Hong Kong Jim became an art collector and "serial" entrepreneur. He developed a line of fly fishing clothes, hand-carved ducks and birds, and dealt in Papua New Guinea carvings collected from two trips up the Sepik River via wooden canoe. Jim ended his Asian career as CEO of a technology company based in Singapore.Jim was a keen fly fisherman and fly tyer leading to summer trips floating the rivers of MT with Sue at the oars, and traveling the world in pursuit of fish to be caught but never eaten. Following his trout muse to New Zealand, Jim found the perfect stage for his and Sue's second act - the ideal farm and blue ribbon trout stream. Here they developed the farm and built and ran a small fishing lodge for 4 years.Beginning with their marriage in 1975 on the banks of the North Saint Vrain River outside of Lyons, CO, their home by the river was their anchor. Jim was passionately involved with improving the riparian corridor of the Lyons property, especially after the devastating floods of 2013. His determination was tested but ultimately rewarded by having to get a permit from the Army Corp of Engineers to complete his flood recovery project. A life long lover of trains led Jim later in life to collect NScale trains for his planned ultimate train room in their MT home. He was an ardent CU Buffalo sports fan, holding season football tickets for over 35 years, truly a Forever Buff! He'll always be known for his "unique" sense of humor, generosity and adventurous spirit, instilling a lifelong love of popular music and margaritas in his nephews, and a sartorial devotion to khakis. Jim is survived by his wife Sue Suskiewich of Livingston, MT, siblings Liz (Bob) Kohls, Jack (Terry) Hanley, and Loretta Hanley, nephews Bob (Paula) Kohls Jr., Mike (Jenny) Kohls, John Hanley, Keith Hanley, and nieces Colleen (Kohls) Stein, Stacy Hanley, brother in law Don Suskiewich and lastly his beloved "therapy" cat Maggie.We appreciate the care given to Jim during his fight with cancer by MDAnderson and Bozeman Deaconess Cancer Center. Memorial donations may be made to Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a conservation organization of your choice, or the Prostate Cancer Foundation. A celebration of Jim's life will be held later this year in Paradise Valley.