James Frank Cosgrave

I have mentioned that an important factor in the change in my thinking and conclusions with regard to religion was my introduction to philosophy and Biblical criticism (in the sense of inspection and analysis for sources, original meanings, glosses, etc. [the definition here being, according to thefreedictionary.com, “a brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or technical expression usually inserted in the margin or between lines of a text or manuscript” or “an extensive commentary, often accompanying a text or publication] by one of my Shell colleagues whom I met during my early days at Wilmington. His name was James Frank Cosgrave and he went variably by the names of Jim and Frank. I recall using either name at time.

He had been a chemistry major at Fresno State and because of a physical disability (he was a low-level spastic) was not wanted by the military. He had been hired by Shell to work in the lab. For some reason he and I “hit” it off and our relationship continued after he left Shell, move to San Francisco when the war was over and went to work as a reporter for McGraw-Hill. He worked for their publication Chemical Engineering. His parents were strong Presbyterians but he had departed from their beliefs, doubtless because of his introduction to philosophy and analysis of the Bible, subjects that he had encountered in college. He did however remain on congenial terms with his parents though I am sure they were aware of his thinking on religion. Later on he became a lawyer but I never know in what capacity he worked in that field. Somewhere along the line I lost contact with him — partly because he didn’t seem to respond to Christmas cards and eventually one was I recall returned with the note “no person of this name at this address.”

Several years ago (probably 1998 or so) Jean and I were visiting Muriel in Sacramento and the subject of Jim Cosgrave came up. I had wondered previously if I could locate him through him being a lawyer in California. Typically for me I had not followed up on this idea. No so my daughter Muriel. She immediately telephoned some pertinent telephone number in this regard (an action that had occurred to me but in my usual way of procrastination had not pursued). She found out that he had died a short time previously. So my vague intention of locating him and resuming contact came to naught. I still wonder what happened to his life after I lost contact with him.