James "Jim" Roll Tourtellotte, 89, passed away on April 8, 2025. It was Mother's Day (May 12), 1935 at Eastern State College in Wilburton, Oklahoma when Beatrice and Everett Tourtellotte happily welcomed their sixth child, James Roll Tourtellotte, into the family. In a tragic twist of fate Jim's father passed away one year later. The family moved to Chickasha briefly, and then later settled in Stillwater. Jim attended Stillwater schools through the 12th grade. At 13 he was introduced to politics as a Page in the Oklahoma State Senate. He excelled in wrestling, music, drama, and debate at Stillwater High School. Upon graduation, he continued working in music, drama, and debate at Oklahoma State University. At OSU he studied among other things, French and Russian. This developed a curious interest in language, to which he added Italian and Japanese later in life. He worked his way through law school, passing the bar to become a licensed attorney. Upon graduation, he was a commissioned officer in the Military Police Corps, where he served for 3 years. After being discharged from the army, he returned to Stillwater, entering private practice where he became County Attorney of Payne County. During this time, he was a member of the Town & Gown theater group and appeared in several of their productions. As County Attorney he served as Vice President and ultimately became President of the Oklahoma State County Attorney's Association. As the President, he championed the conversion of the County Attorney system to the existing District Attorney system. After serving his term in office, he moved to Ketchum, OK to become the General Counsel of the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), located in Vinita, OK. There he learned the fundamentals of the electric utility business. During his time at the GRDA he was also in a gospel quartet which performed at mostly senior citizen and charitable events. In 1970, he moved to Washington DC and was Assistant General Counsel for the electric side of the Federal Power Commission (FPC). At the FPC he earned a Meritorious Service Award. While at the FPC, he was also a swimmer for the DC Masters. That group won the Master National Championship for several years during the time that he was swimming with them. In 1974 he moved to the Atomic Energy Commission, now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as Assistant Chief Hearing Counsel. At the NRC he was promoted to become a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and rose to the rank of SES 4, the approximate civil service equivalent of a General Officer of the Armed Forces. He was a premier litigator and had the responsibility of litigating the most difficult cases of the NRC, including, but not limited to 3-Mile Island, Brown's Ferry Fire, and Diablo Canyon. During this time, he wrote and published "Nuclear Licensing Litigation: Come On In The Quagmire Is Fine". During his last 4 years he served as Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Task Force (RRTF). In 1981, as chairman of the RRTF, he was responsible for the commission making several changes to the regulations. In 1985, Jim left the government and started his own law firm. He was a member of the International Nuclear Law Assoc., The Oklahoma Bar Assoc., United States Supreme Court, and the Cosmos Club. For the next several years he practiced law and had a lobbying firm as well. In the 1990's he was the COO of Juno Systems, a company that provided services to investment banks in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Jim was married twice, first to Marilyn Parks, with whom he had three children, James, Michele, and David, and six grandchildren, Munroe, Emma, Grace, Gabrielle, Ethan and Jimmy. His second marriage was to Carla Anderson, where he gained three more children, Tiffany, Shayna, and Ford. Jim and Carla moved to Santa Fe where he sang regularly at Vanessie, a local piano bar and was known by his friends as "Gentleman Jim". There were many sides to Jim's life. He loved word play and good humor. In addition, he sought to be a man for all seasons. In that endeavor he was a lawyer, leader, singer, songwriter, actor, athlete, poet, graphic artist, author, and photographer. He would also point out to you that he won a dance contest in DC and a hog calling contest in NYC. What more could you ask of a man for all seasons?

A celebration of Jim's life will be at 2:00 PM, Monday, May 12th at St. Luke's Methodist Church, 222 NW 15th.

If you wish to honor Jim's life, please consider a donation to Oklahoma Parkinson's Alliance,

720 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 109, Oklahoma City, OK 73116