James Frank Gill
James Frank Gill, 75, of Roswell, NM, passed surrounded by family and loved ones on March 16, 2024, in Albuquerque, NM. He was born on June 16, 1948, to Walter Lee Gill and Iola McCombs Gill in Clovis, NM.
Jim’s roots in the community were deep from birth as the fourth generation of Roswell Seed Company, and he made them even stronger through a lifetime of being the heartbeat of the entire Southeastern New Mexico community. He was a master storyteller with a unique ability to connect past with present, sowing seeds of wisdom and levity in conversations that ranged from agriculture advice to reliving past shenanigans. Sometimes it was hard to tell what part was the wisdom and what was the levity, but that was the magic of having a conversation with Jim Gill.
“Blackeye” Jim officially started his Roswell Seed career earning a quarter for sweeping the floor at eight years old. He demonstrated his business acumen early, saving his quarters to run down the street to Ginsberg’s music store to buy a Buddy Holly record. Jim was a Cub Scout, and although he didn’t know it at the time, his Den Mother would later become his mother-in-law. Later in his adolescent years, he could be found dragging Main in his old Plymouth with his cousin Doug, when he wasn’t playing saxophone in the Roswell High School Band.
After graduating Roswell High School in 1966, Jim’s agricultural heritage formalized with his Aggie education at New Mexico State University, where he earned his Bachelor’s in Agricultural Engineering. His time at NMSU was spent participating in ROTC, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, and engaging in non-publishable shenanigans with his fellow Aggies. His participation in the Physical Science Lab (PSL) Program provided funding for his schooling along with rich experiences in satellite tracking, scuba diving,…
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