Obituary: James Hopkins Wickersham Jr., 88, of Southport

From Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home

James Hopkins Wickersham Jr., 88, of Southport, Connecticut, died on August 20, 2017 after a brief illness.

He was born in New York City on July 29, 1929, the son of James and Bertha (Tilney) Wickersham. He was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1951. He then served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery. He was a vice president of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, and a founder of the Park Avenue Bank. Mr. Wickersham served for many years as a director and the treasurer of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; he was also a director of the National Audubon Society.

Mr. Wickersham was an experienced sailor, who skippered a series of yachts named “Gannet” in at least 10 Bermuda races and the 1972 Trans-Atlantic race from Bermuda to Bayona, Spain. He sailed three times to Newfoundland. He was a member of the Cruising Club of America, the New York Yacht Club, and the Pequot Yacht Club. He could take a sun sight and a star sight, and could navigate safely into a fog-choked harbor relying on his compass, his charts, and the sounds of bell-buoys and breakers.

He leaves his sons Jay and Peter, his daughter Tilney, and eight grandchildren. His later years were made happy by the love of Virginia Sanford.

A memorial service will be held in Southport on Friday, September 15 at Trinity Episcopal Church at 3:30 PM, with a reception afterward at the Pequot Yacht Club. Contributions in Mr. Wickersham’s memory can be made to the Mystic Seaport Museum, Attn. Advancement Department, 75 Greenmanville Ave., P.O. Box 6000, Mystic, CT 06355 or to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, P.O. Box 5028, Hagerstown, MD 21741. To send an online condolence, please visit www.shaughnesseybanks.com.