Former Port Hueneme Councilman Jim Daniels dies at 96; family plans services Thursday

Memorial services for former Port Hueneme Councilman James “Jim” Daniels Jr., one of the U.S. Navy's first Seabees, will be held Thursday.

Daniels, 96, died July 24, said granddaughter Dawne Hamilton. She attributed his death to age but said he also suffered from a monthlong infection.

"He never said anything bad about anybody," Hamilton said. "He was someone who never met a stranger."

A viewing and memorial service will begin at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oxnard at 850 Ivywood Drive. A graveside service and reception will be held at Conejo Mountain Funeral Home, Memorial Park & Crematory at 2052 Howard Road in Camarillo, at 1 p.m. later that day.

Born in Beckley, West Virginia on March 9, 1926, Daniels joined the Navy in 1942 at 16. He was assigned to one of three Construction Battalion Maintenance Units, nicknamed the Seabees, in early 1943 and trained in Port Hueneme. Later that year, he shipped out to the Pacific theater.

Daniels helped maintain and build airports and roads and distill salt water throughout the South Pacific.

He returned to Port Hueneme for a brief period after the war where he met his wife, Ginny, in February 1946. They married on May 24 that same year. The couple had two children, Bill in 1948 and Brenda in 1950.

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The remainder of Daniels' military career, which sent him to Korea and Vietnam, revolved around Naval Base Ventura County.

In the late 1960s, Daniels earned the rank master chief petty officer, but it was contingent on serving another tour in Vietnam. He declined the promotion to look after his son who sustained injuries when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle in January 1968 in Vietnam.

Daniels received the Purple Heart for also taking rocket fire in 1968. He retired in 1969 at the rank of senior chief petty officer after serving his country for 26 years.

In June 2008, Daniels was appointed an honorary master chief petty officer of the Navy during the 22nd annual Seabee Days event at Naval Base Ventura County.

After the military, Daniels worked for the Hueneme Elementary School District for 17 years, retiring as head of maintenance.

He was an active member of the community, serving on the Hueneme Rotary Club until it disbanded in 2008. He was also involved with the local ROTC program and Hueneme Chamber of Commerce.

In 1986, Daniels was elected to the Port Hueneme City Council and served for eight years, two of which were as mayor pro tem.

Orvene Carpenter, who served on the council for 30 years, said Daniels helped spearhead redevelopment projects throughout the city. The current City Hall building, Surfside Condos and Moranda Park were all built during Daniels' time on the council, he said.

Outside of council duties, Carpenter and Daniels were close friends. The two first met in the South Pacific in 1943 while Carpenter was in the Marine Corps, but they didn't become friends until a few years later when they were living in Port Hueneme.

"We were just skinny kids then, but, of course, we all were," Carpenter said.

Daniels was predeceased by his wife, who died in 1999 of a stroke; his son, who succumbed to cancer in 1973; and his daughter, who died in 2012 after battling Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Daniels is also preceded in death by former Port Hueneme Mayors Doug Breeze, 69, and Ellis Green, 61, who passed away within a day of each other in September.

Daniels' family requests donations be made to the Gary Sinise Foundation or Shriner’s Hospitals for Children in lieu of flowers.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Port Hueneme Councilman, WWII vet Daniels to be remembered Thursday