Longtime Birmingham-Bloomfield resident James R. Fonda died December 15, 2003 after an extended illness, in Sunnyvale, California where he had recently relocated. Born December 20, 1915 in Troy, New York, he was a graduate of Rider College in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1939, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he soon began work as a salesman of accounting machines for Burroughs Corporation. He married Mary Jane Quinby in 1943 while in the army and in the fall of 1944 took his position with the 106th Division near St. Vith, Belgium as a First Lieutenant of the Field Artillery. Shortly thereafter, the German offensive began and he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944. He remained a POW in Germany until the end of the war despite attempts by Patton's troops to liberate his camp in February. Resuming his work for Burroughs, he moved to Detroit in 1946 and to Birmingham in 1948. He was Branch Manager in Akron, Ohio from 1958-66, a salesman in Cleveland from 1966-69 and then returned to this area. He devoted his entire working career to Burroughs, retiring in 1985. He was a longtime member of Christ Church Cranbrook and was active in the Senior Men's Club in Birmingham. His survivors include his wife of 60 years, Mary Jane, his sons Jim (of Santa Clara, California) and Rod (of Bellevue, Washington), daughters-in-law Mary-Ann Fonda and Laura Haddad, grandson, Kyle Haddad-Fonda, and sisters Louise Ditsch, formerly of Syracuse, New York but now residing in Fallbrook, California, and Toni Curley of Troy, New York.
Longtime Birmingham-Bloomfield resident James R. Fonda died December 15, 2003 after an extended illness, in Sunnyvale, California where he had recently relocated. Born December 20, 1915 in Troy, New York, he was a graduate of Rider College in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1939, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he soon began work as a salesman of accounting machines for Burroughs Corporation. He married Mary Jane Quinby in 1943 while in the army and in the fall of 1944 took his position with the 106th Division near St. Vith, Belgium as a First Lieutenant of the Field Artillery. Shortly thereafter, the German offensive began and he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944. He remained a POW in Germany until the end of the war despite attempts by Patton's troops to liberate his camp in February. Resuming his work for Burroughs, he moved to Detroit in 1946 and to Birmingham in 1948. He was Branch Manager in Akron, Ohio from 1958-66, a salesman in Cleveland from 1966-69 and then returned to this area. He devoted his entire working career to Burroughs, retiring in 1985. He was a longtime member of Christ Church Cranbrook and was active in the Senior Men's Club in Birmingham. His survivors include his wife of 60 years, Mary Jane, his sons Jim (of Santa Clara, California) and Rod (of Bellevue, Washington), daughters-in-law Mary-Ann Fonda and Laura Haddad, grandson, Kyle Haddad-Fonda, and sisters Louise Ditsch, formerly of Syracuse, New York but now residing in Fallbrook, California, and Toni Curley of Troy, New York.
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