James Albert Venner

James A Venner, 89, of Lakewood CO died Tuesday June 21, 2022 at home.

He was born in Genoa, Wisconsin on April 20th, 1933 to Francis and Mary Venner. He was raised on a dairy farm by hard working parents who taught him the value of hard work and a responsibility to family. Much of his early years were in the shadow of the great depression. The family mostly subsided on the fruits of their labor.

He was drafted into the army in 1952 near the end of the Korean War and trained at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was a heavy equipment operator during his time in the service and was honorably discharged in 1955.

After serving in the Army, Jim attended Marquette University. There he studied manufacturing engineering. While in school, he worked at a manufacturing company called Cutler Hammer in tool design where he met his wife, Marlys Peterson.

Jim married Marlys on July 26th, 1958. They briefly lived in Wisconsin but then moved to the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. They were happily married for 63 years.

Jim worked as a manufacturing engineer for a few manufacturing companies but ultimately retired from Lockheed Martin. There he had some heightened clearance for some of his projects. One of these was the engineering of some very large satellites used for national defense. Many are still in use today. He was a part of Lockheed/Martin’s management team. For a time, he was president of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Jim’s hobbies included researching the family history including the genealogy of family going back to the 1800’s and a little town in Italy named Campodolcino. He connected with distant relatives and helped to link people for numerous family heritage reunions (many people from the US have traveled to Italy to visit and many Italian family members have come to the US to visit). Jim also enjoyed his family, hiking, bicycling, camping, and card playing.

Jim was a very generous man. After retirement he volunteered helping with elderly and low-income people’s taxes and also installing grab bars for those in need.

I think Jim would want his legacy to be his family. He was always warm, loving, supportive, and a great example as a family leader. He was a great husband and father. He raised his daughters to be respectful, hardworking, dedicated to their own families and dedicated followers of Jesus.

His family will remember him as the best of husbands, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. We knew he was great all along!

He is survived by his wife Marlys, four daughters, three son-in-law’s, nine grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren, seven siblings, and numerous other family members.

Funeral services will be at Aspen Mortuaries, 6370 Union St. Arvada Colorado. June 29th at 10:00 AM

Burial at Fort Logan National Cemetery. June 30th at 9:00

Final resting place: Heaven!