James "Jim" Francis Kelly was born in Cincinnati on April 15, 1939 to Frank and Dorothy Kelly. He was the second of their eight children. He attended Our Lady of Grace Grade School in Price Hill and then St Gregory Seminary. After earning his high school diploma and completing a year and a half of college, he left the Seminary and attended Xavier University. He joined the US Army in 1961. After completing basic training, he was stationed at Ft. Dix in New Jersey for training and Ft Hood (now Ft Cavazos) as a chaplain's assistant. After two years and two days in the service, he was honorably discharged and returned to Cincinnati where he completed his AB in Economics at Xavier University in January 1964.

Immediately upon completing his degree, Jim was hired by Elder High School to teach and take on the Guidance Director role. From 1966-1974 he worked at Xavier University as the Assistant Director of Admissions and Director of Veteran Educational Benefits. He then moved to Piqua to be Edison State's "Mr. Everything" as it was being created: covering admissions, financial aid, registrar, etc. In 1980, he came back to Xavier for his "second tour of duty" as Financial Aid Director. In 1991 he became Scholarship Director at University of Dayton. For the final part of his career, he served as a Guidance Counselor at Archbishop Moeller High School from 2001-2009. Throughout his career regardless of his role, what he loved most was helping students achieve their potential and pursue their college degrees.

Jim was blessed with six children. Four during his marriage to Sharon Schoen: Jamie (Kim) Kelly, Katie (Gary) Terwilleger, Amy (Wendell) Wethington, and Jeff (Emily) Kelly. And two more, Charlie and Maggie during his marriage to Kathy Hake. He was also blessed with ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

He was active in his community, volunteering as a lector, Eucharistic minister, and bereavement committee volunteer at St Teresa of Avila Church. He also coached his children in basketball and baseball as a volunteer while they were in grade school.

He had many hobbies: photography, bird-watching (and squirrel-shooing), genealogy, and Find-a-Grave. He loved to travel both around the US and Europe, particularly enjoying his baseball trips with his sons Charlie and Jamie, and grandson Brennan and his six trips to Ireland. Above all he was a lifelong, avid fan of the Cincinnati Reds. His favorite season of the year was baseball season.

Visitation will be Monday, February 26th at the Vitt, Stermer & Anderson Funeral Home 4619 Delhi Rd. from 5-8PM.

Funeral Mass will be Tuesday, February 27th, 10AM at St. Teresa of Avila Church.

Memorials may be made to St. Vincent dePaul, 1125 Bank Street, Cincinnati, OH 45214 (or online: svdpcincinnati.org) Renie O'Conner Scholarship Fund, Elder High School, 3900 Vincent Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45205 or ALS United Ohio, 1170 Henderson Road - Suite 221, Columbus, OH 43220 (or online: alsohio.org)