James "Jim" D. Van Sickle

James D. "Jim" Van Sickle, 100, of Topeka, KS, passed away January 29, 2023, at Oakley Place Care Facility about five weeks short of his 101st birthday.

He was born March 4, 1922, in Boston, MA the son of Albert Arthur and Maude Sarah (Clark) Van Sickle.

Albert, called "Arthur" or sometimes know as "A.A." was in the seminary in Boston about to be ordained as a Baptist Minister. Maude had been a schoolteacher before she married Arthur. They and Jim's older brother Joe, moved to Kansas about a year after Jim was born.

Jim grew up in Lawrence, attended Ottawa University and graduated from Kansas University in 1943 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He married his first late wife, Viola, shortly after graduation. After several months as a tool engineer for Frigidaire Division of General Motors in Dayton, Ohio making Hamilton-Standard propellers for WW II planes, he spent three years in the US Navy as an instructor in the maintenance, repair, and operations of airborne radar. After 18 years as engineer and president of Richardson Manufacturing Company in Cawker City, KS, he moved to Topeka in 1963, with his second late wife, Anne, where they started and owned Vanguard Products Corporation, producing precast concrete structures. In 2005, He sold his company to Oldcastle Precast and retired. Jim has had a lifetime interest in art and music, playing the clarinet in grade school and high school bands and orchestras, in Ottawa University music groups, the Kansas University band and Corpus Christi Navy band. In Topeka, He started collecting paintings by local and Midwest artists and glass paperweights from around the world, both contemporary and antique. During the period of time spent in Cawker City, he earned his private pilot license and flew his Beach Bonanza around the central United States on business and pleasure.

Jim is survived by six children, Larry, Jeanne, Bob, Camille, Dean and Stacy. Ten grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren also survive.

Cremation has taken place with no public services planned. Jim will be laid to rest at the Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Topeka, KS.

Beneficiaries of his philanthropy include: KTWU, White Concert Hall, Mulvane Art Building, Mary Gordy and James Van Sickle Washburn Women's Alliance Scholarship, Dr. Jerry and Susan Farley Professorship in Leadership, Carole Chapel Piano, Trees Project Fund, and the Washburn Women's Alliance Luncheon.

Fond memories and condolences may be left at www.midwest-cremation.com.