Jim Sunshine, who spent decades at The Journal as a reporter and editor, dies at 99

James K. Sunshine, who spent 44 years as a reporter and editor at the Providence Journal, died on Dec. 27. He was 99.

A former resident of Providence and Tiverton, he also served on the board of the Gordon School, the Providence Athenaeum, and the Tiverton Land Trust.

"It was Jim’s coverage of schools and colleges in the 1950s that elevated education to a defined beat at The Journal," recalled former deputy executive editor Carol Young, who considered Sunshine a mentor and a friend.

From World War II to newspapers

Sunshine grew up in Ohio, the son of a Hungarian immigrant father who worked as a traveling salesman and a mother who ran a dress shop out of her bedroom during the Great Depression. He worked as a paperboy, delivering the Cleveland Plain Dealer, before going on to join the staffs of his high school and college newspapers.

"I had no idea what I wanted to do until one day I realized that what I really wanted to do was what I had always been doing, which was edit newspapers," he recalled in a 2016 interview conducted by his daughter.

First, though, he served as a surgical technician in the 42nd Field Hospital during World War II. Remaining in Europe through the war's end, he endured the D-Day landing at Utah Beach and the Battle of the Bulge.

"I turned 20 years of age on my way to Utah Beach and I was 21 when I walked through the stinking barracks of Buchenwald and past the piles of the dead," he would recall in a 2020 opinion piece in The Journal.

After the war, Sunshine graduated from Oberlin College and earned a master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism, then joined The Journal's staff in 1951.

A long career at The Journal

He initially covered Newport and South Kingstown, then became the paper’s first education editor in 1953, winning national awards for his coverage.

He went on to serve as a managing editor and then deputy executive editor of the paper, retiring in 1995. Young recalls him as "the bow-tied, in-house egghead … an enormously well-read intellectual" who also loved gardening and carpentry and could be found in khakis and L.L. Bean shirts.

"Jim was smart, cool under fire and always had time for a reporter," recalled G. Wayne Miller, a former Journal reporter. "I especially remember his smile."

During his lengthy career, Sunshine also served as the president of the national Education Writers Association and of the New England Association of Newspaper Editors.

In the newsroom, he was known for his insistence on the clear, simple writing of the 1950s, rather than the more literary narrative style of the 1980s and 1990s.

'Even-tempered, steady hand'

Longtime Journal columnist M. Charles Bakst described Sunshine as "an even-tempered, steady hand" who helped manage "a huge staff full of talented but idiosyncratic personalities."

Bakst recalled getting an assignment from Sunshine back when he was a 24-year old "newbie" on the Providence school beat in 1968: How was hidebound, prestigious Classical High School adapting to modern times?

"I spent week after week attending classes and interviewing administrators, teachers, parents, students and alumni," Bakst wrote in an email. "And Jim encouraged me to stretch: For example, go up to the Harvard University School of Education to interview the dean, or call New Tier High in Illinois to see what courses they offered."

"It became clear that Classical, despite its new building, had an outmoded curriculum and failed to challenge or trust its students. I wrote a ton of material, more than any editor should have to put up with, but Jim skillfully compressed it and improved it. The six-part series, highly critical of the school, was titled 'Classical High: The Myth and the Reality’ and evoked a storm of controversy."

The exercise "gave me the training and confidence I needed to become a productive journalist, eventually on the political beat, and I have Jim to thank for that," Bakst said.

Young, similarly, remembered being assigned to cover Providence schools in 1967, the most turbulent year in the district’s history. She was already working long days to keep up with the breaking news, but Sunshine would drop by her desk and ask her to also pull together an analytical "think piece" for the Sunday paper, assuring her that she could do it.

'He set the bar high'

"I felt completely 'in over my head' and would pull an all-nighter in the newsroom so there would be copy when Jim walked in Friday morning," Young wrote in an email. "He set the bar high, and I so wanted to meet his expectations."

Sunshine and his late wife, Anne, raised their children in Providence and later retired to Tiverton. In 2005, after his wife's death, Sunshine returned home to Ohio to live at the Kendal retirement center, which gave him the opportunity to audit classes at his alma mater, Oberlin College.

"Ironically, it wasn’t until we both retired that I came to realize what a great writer Jim was," Bakst said. He noted that Sunshine, well into his 90s, "could write incisive commentaries on the political scene and the stark challenges facing America."

Sunshine's memorial service will be held in Ohio on Jan. 27. A smaller service will take place at Providence's Swan Point Cemetery on Friday, March 8, at 1 p.m.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Jim Sunshine, longtime Providence Journal reporter and editor, dies at 99