Jim Reynolds is an eighty-eight-year-old man who was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated from high school in 1955 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. A year later, Jim married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Downard. Their strong marriage lasted sixty-three years until Ruth died in 2019, and together they raised two great sons, Jimmie Jay and Jerry Ray. In his autobiography, Looking Back While Living Forward, Jim writes about his family.

After high school, Jim served four years in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician. For the next twenty years, he worked for IBM-first as a Field Engineer in North Dakota, then as a Customer Engineer in Washington, D.C. Finally, he transferred to the IBM Field Engineering Education Center in Washington, D.C., where he served as a course instructor, course developer, and later as a Senior Instructor before leaving IBM in 1983.

Jim then spent twenty years as a counselor at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) in Alexandria, Virginia. He focused on student academic advisement, career counseling, and classroom and online courses about "Learning to Learn" and learning styles. Jim retired from NVCC in 2004.

As a part-time adult student, Jim earned four college degrees. First, he received an Associate of Arts degree from Prince George's Community College (1973), followed by a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from American University (1975). Next, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Education and Human Development from George Washington University (1980). Then, at age 52, he earned an Ed.D. in Student Personnel Services from Virginia Tech, focusing on counseling.

Jim is now a resident at the Asbury Solomons retirement community, located in Solomons, Maryland. Jim can be reached at jimbook2025@gmail.com