James Brantingham Obituary

James Michael Brantingham
October 15, 1945 - May 30, 2025
James Brantingham of Seattle, WA and formerly of Santa Rosa, CA, died on Friday, May 30 after a short illness. He was comforted in his final days and hours by the family and friends who gathered at his bedside and he died peacefully thanks to the graces of the palliative care team at University of Washington Medical Center.
Jim lived life on his own terms. It was not often easy, and that seemed part of the satisfaction. If there were two paths, you could usually find Jim on the steep and rocky trail, not the flat and smooth one. He taught himself to play both guitar and clarinet in his teens; he survived the US Army (one rocky road he did not choose); he went to Gonzaga University later in life and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Comparative Literature, cum laude, working at the college to pay his way. He worked in construction and, most improbably, managed a business for over 20 years providing underwater mapping services to fishing fleets. Throughout it all, he read the classics in Latin and Greek, Joyce, Proust, Pound the more challenging the better. And, most importantly, he wrote.
Jim's poetry was published in the Copper Canyon Press and Zyzzyva among others. He wrote what he called his "silly sailing stories" for 48° North Magazine and at the same time translated Homer. He published five books of poetry and essays, most recently The Late Night's Blue Edge, part memoir, part literary history. His work was liberally sprinkled with the Latin and Greek that he loved (and thought everyone should understand). He thought having to work hard wasn't a barrier to his writing and should not be a barrier to his or anyone else's reading.
Jim was a scholar and a poet; he was also a loving father to Austin and Nate Brantingham, grandfather to Sara Butkus, Everett Brantingham, and Isabelle Brantingham, great grandfather to Owen and Blaine Butkus. He was loved by his sister, Patricia Brantingham; he was predeceased by their brother Richard.
Friends and family will gather to celebrate Jim's life on Tuesday, June 3 at Grateful Bread bakery and café, where he walked every day to buy his cookie, make friends, and sort out the world.