James Robert Dutoit, born February 7, 1926, died at home January 4, 2009, was the son of Lillian (Lang) and Albert Dutoit. He married Dolores Iuston in 1955, and they had four children: Susan of Brighton, MI, Brian (Sallie) of Adrian, Thomas (Anne Tomiche) of Paris, France, Allison (Dan Tilbury) of Cardiff, Wales U.K; and six grandchildren (Matthew, Nicholas, Vincent, Ryan, Allison, Chloe).
Having grown up in Dayton, Ohio, during the Great Depression, Jim overcame adverse conditions to be an outstanding honors student in high school, prior to graduating cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s of Science in Commerce in 1948.
After beginning his professional career in public accounting in Detroit, during the 1950s, notably for Haskins & Sells, Jim was recalled shortly into the Navy, where he was Lieutenant, Officer in Charge of the Navy Accounting Office. He returned to the private sector in the mid 1950s, and worked as accountant in Detroit, and then for Stubnitz Springs in Adrian, as comptroller for Hoover Universal, before retiring in 1989 from Johnson Controls.
If one had to isolate one single characteristic of Jim Dutoit, perhaps it would be that he always left things better than he found them. In this regard, he embodied a fundamental human aspiration: to increase the beauty of life. Jim’s love for the beauty of life manifested itself in his gardener’s passion for plants and trees, and in his artistic talent for home renovations, both of which he shared in creative tandem with his wife of 53 years.
Possessed with a wry and dry humor, deeply respectful of and toward others, Jim Dutoit was a noble man who, through his actions and example, bequeathed a way of living whose standards will always guide those who follow in his wake.
