{"id":287989,"date":"2026-09-17T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287989\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:12:09","slug":"james-m-montgomery-jr-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287989\/","title":{"rendered":"James M. Montgomery, Jr. – The Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

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James M. Montgomery, Jr., 86, a resident of Hershey for 41 years, passed away on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Nancy, his wife of 59 years, was with him when he passed, surrounded by the love of his family. He had been in hospice care at Columbia Cottage, Palmyra, PA for two weeks.<\/p>\n

Jim was born on May 23,1940 in Williamsport, PA to James M. Montgomery, Sr. and Elsie Talley Montgomery. He grew up in Northumberland, PA, where he enjoyed a strong sense of community. In the 1950s, his family moved to Harrisburg and then to Bethlehem, PA. Jim graduated in 1958 from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, where he was a miler on the track team. He was a 1962 graduate of Lafayette College, where he earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering. Jim was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity, where he made many lifelong friends and was active in interfraternity sports. Over the years, he and Nancy often gathered with friends from Lafayette to cheer on the Leopards at football games, and Jim remained active in the Lafayette community, attending and co-chairing class reunions. In 1963, he earned an M.S. in Transportation Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Northwestern, Jim spent two years of active military duty at the Aberdeen, MD Proving Ground, where he played on the baseball team. He then served as a U.S. Army reserve officer, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1990.<\/p>\n

Following his service in the U.S. Army, Jim worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Allentown, PA office as an inspector on construction of bridges on the Bethlehem Spur Route. In 1967, Jim started at Bethlehem Steel as an Engineer in the Construction Specialties, Home Office. In 1980, he was based in Cleveland, Ohio as a Sales Engineer, and in 1985, he returned to Pennsylvania as Marketing Manager for a former subsidiary, Lane Metal Products Company in Camp Hill. In 1986, Jim returned to Bethlehem Steel as a Sales Engineer, and in 1995 he was promoted to Manager of Construction Marketing, retiring in 2003 with 35 years of service at Bethlehem Steel. Jim was active in The Steel Bridge Forum and the National Steel Bridge Alliance and was a member of the Association for Bridge Construction and Design and the Society of Highway Engineers.<\/p>\n

During their early decades in the Lehigh Valley, then in Ohio and the years in Hershey, Jim and Nancy formed valued friendships that they have enjoyed for decades, sharing many special occasions and memories.<\/p>\n

In addition to volunteering at All Saints Episcopal Church, Jim joined Nancy in delivering meals through Meals on Wheels for many years. Together, they were also active volunteers with the Hershey Food Bank.<\/p>\n

Jim will always be remembered as an avid Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles fan who enjoyed sharing his love of sports with his children and grandchildren. He was a devoted grandfather, and he took delight in playing with his grandchildren and celebrating many family milestones together. Jim adored the many family dogs, especially Mimi and Toby. Jim loved history, especially history related to U.S. presidents and his British heritage. And he enjoyed time in nature, particularly in autumn.<\/p>\n

Surviving Jim is his wife, Nancy (n\u00e9e Gabriel) Montgomery; daughters Joan Montgomery Halford (Shawn Halford) of Needham, MA and Denise Montgomery (David Urso) of San Diego, CA; and grandchildren Gabriel and Rose Halford and Olivia and Barrett Urso. Jim was predeceased by his daughter, Michelle Montgomery, and his sister, Sally Montgomery.<\/p>\n

Jim was a member of All Saints Episcopal Church, Hershey and a funeral service will be held there on Saturday, September 26, 2026, at 11 a.m. The family will begin receiving guests at 10:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Memorial contributions can be made to All Saints Episcopal Church, 310 Elm Ave. Hershey, PA, 17033, or a charity of your choice.<\/p>\n

Send condolences at: www.hooverfuneralhome.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 James M. Montgomery, Jr., 86, a resident of Hershey for 41 years, passed away on Thursday, September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-287989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}