Jim Bassett, a farmer, engineer, teacher, father of eight, and his partner, Florence, were one of my first guest couples at The Ampersand Inn (during the Wooden Duck days). They visited regularly in order to spend time with Jim’s mother and, with each visit, I learned more about this multi-faceted man. I am inspired to share Jim’s story with Ampersand guests because his knowledge, resilience, creativity, work ethic, and devotion as a parent, partner and son, are models for us all.

Jim was born in Passaic, NJ, moved to Sussex County with his family in 1964, and graduated from Newton High School in 1966. From an early age, Jim had two career goals: to be an astronaut or to become a farmer. It is hard to say where the farming idea “germinated,” as he had little success planting seeds in the coal ash ground behind the city apartments where he and his two sisters spent their grade school years.

Jim went to the University of Wisconsin on a partial US Air Force scholarship and, unable to pay college costs, accepted an offer to attend the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, He later resigned from the Academy, returned to the UW Madison to study Mechanical Engineering & Metallurgy (commissioned through AFROTC) and attended pilot training (still with the goal to become an astronaut!) However, during his time in Madison, Jim became more interested in engineering, particularly as applied to agriculture and alternate energy such as wind generation.

Following a stint in the USAF, Jim worked for several large companies in the US and Europe, including at John Deere as an engineer on combine harvesters. Jim was not happy in a large company environment, which led him to found Dawn Equipment Company in Sycamore, Illinois. Dawn designs, manufactures and markets agricultural tools for conservation farming. Dawn tools enable farmers to produce crops with less tillage, fuel, chemicals, and erosion, at a lower cost than conventional plow/disc and harrow methods.

Dawn pioneered strip tillage, a method of growing crops where only the row where the crop is planted is lightly tilled and fertilized, minimizing the tractor power, labor, fertilizer and herbicide required to produce row crops. This greatly helps the environment, while maintaining or improving soil health and productivity. Jim has approximately 25 US patents related to agricultural developments. Recently, an Illinois Historical Association marker was placed to commemorate the development of the Agricultural Yield Monitor, one of Jim’s patents and a key part of current precision farming.

In addition to his career as an engineer and entrepreneur, Jim and his wife Margaret’s family grew to include eight children, three biological and five adopted. The adopted children come from a variety of backgrounds and ethnic groups. Their concern for, and love of, children led them to create a combined family. “Some babies come from the hospital, some come from the airport, families come together in different ways,” they always told their children and they all provided a very lively addition to the various neighborhoods they lived in. The children’s adult careers now include a nurse, a doctor, an engineer, an accountant, an exercise physiologist, a bank examiner and a couple yet to be determined!

Jim’s mother, Theresa, 96, is a long-time resident of Newton and recently moved into assisted living at Bristol Glen, where she regularly beats visitors at Scrabble! Theresa provides important family connection for all of her grandkids, especially for some of the adopted children who know little about their birth families. She has been a guest at The Ampersand for breakfast when Jim and Flo have visited from their farm home in Wisconsin, where Jim raises an organic grass-fed Hereford beef cowherd. Jim retired to his Wisconsin farm in 2010, leaving Dawn, still a family business, to be run by two very capable sons.

In addition to raising a very much-loved cowherd in retirement, Jim taught high school physics for four years in a Waldorf school, and now substitutes for all grades K-12 in two rural public school districts. Even the 2nd graders learn scientific principles when Jim holds up a paper clip and a book and asks the group which will hit the ground first if released at the same time? Young faces consistently light up in wonder when they hit the ground at the same time and then Jim discusses the concept of gravity. Jim hopes that this little seed of science, planted early, will sprout as the kids grow and remember the Grandpa Jim, substitute teacher, they had way back in elementary school.

Every guest who meets Jim remembers their substantive conversations, his jovial manner, and the profound respect he demonstrates with his partner, Flo, and with his mother, Theresa. And I, as Innkeeper, am always mindful of Jim’s advice to me during their first breakfast, “Irene, every guest should be facing the center of the room, so they see one another and can easily converse….no one should face a wall” And so it is. Each morning, Jim guides us as we set the tables “facing center” to enliven The Ampersand’s motto, “it’s all about connection!”