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James R. Hanson Fund
This fund was established in memory of James R. Hanson by his family to support the many peace and justice causes and organizations he cared about.

James R. Hanson was a graduate of Fremont High School in Fremont, Nebraska, Oberlin College, and the University of Michigan Law School. He took leave after his freshman year at Oberlin to serve on a Merchant Marine transport ship tasked with returning prisoners of war back to Germany from POW camps in the United States. After college, Jim worked as a reporter and photographer for the Defiance Crescent News in Defiance, Ohio, and in 1951 married a fellow Oberlin classmate, Portia Peters. Soon thereafter, he was drafted into the Korean Conflict where he served as a corporal in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Jim eventually moved to Columbus, working at the Ohio Water Commission, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Legislative Service Commission, then in private practice providing legal counsel for various wildlife and ground water organizations. A writer and researcher at heart, Jim applied his talents to the many local and global peace and justice issues after his retirement in 1997. Jim was a member of First Community Church since 1967. Survived by his wife of 68 years, Portia Hanson, their three daughters, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, Jim passed away in 2019.

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