James ‘Jim' Edward Creech, 61: Documented historic sites as an architect

Jim Creech's job as a historical architect for the federal government allowed him to travel the world.

In Alaska, he documented historic mining camps and cabins built by the indigenous people. In Alabama, he helped preserve fixtures that are part of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. He oversaw restoration of Abraham Lincoln's birth home in Kentucky and his childhood home in Indiana.

His first trip to Alaska occurred while he was a student at Georgia Tech, studying for a master's degree. Years later, after he became a historical architect for the U.S. National Park Service, he returned to the state.

"He visited every park in Alaska," said Nancy Stangle, his wife of five years. "He even visited the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Reserve and Denali National Park."

On Oct. 17, James "Jim" Edward Creech of Athens died at his home from complications of adenoid cystic carcinoma. He was 61. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 31 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens. Bernstein Funeral Home and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Creech, who was born in Charleston, S.C., joined the U.S. Air Force in the late 1960s and became an illustrator of technical manuals. After the military, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Atlanta College of Art, followed by a master's degree of fine arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and one in architecture from Georgia Tech.

His wife said the 12 years he spent in Alaska were a highlight of a career of 40-plus years.

"They spent summers in places where they would be dropped down by helicopter and stay in tents," she said. "They would spend weeks walking through the wilderness documenting things and making drawings."

Dennis Creech of Atlanta remembers visiting his brother in Anchorage.

"I think what he loved about the job and what they valued in him was his formal training as an artist and in architecture," he said. "He did incredible illustrations as well as archaeological documentation of these structures, and they used some of them in educational displays."

Mr. Creech was a project manager for the U.S. National Park Service's regional office in Omaha, Neb., when he supervised the rehabilitation of a school building now part of the Brown v. the Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas.

And while based in Atlanta, he managed the restoration of  an officer's club and original hangar that are on the grounds of the Tuskegee National Historic Site in Alabama.