Jim graduated from Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology) with a degree in chemical engineering, and went on to meet noted landscape architect John Meeks during the1986 IWGS Symposium in St Louis, Missouri, USA. John had recently purchased Tricker’s historic Saddle River, New Jersey, USA establishment and needed a capable, knowledgeable general manager to oversee the operation. Jim accepted John’s offer and proved invaluable in assisting gardeners to achieve a truly balanced water feature, especially when it came to the growing interest of having koi in water features.

Jim soon became an active member of the IWGS Board of Directors and served as President. In recognition of his international work furthering the cause of water gardening, Germany’s Gesellschaft der Wassergarten Freunde presented Jim with their Silber Silver Award at its 1991 annual symposium in Kassel. Jim taught water gardening classes at Rutgers and various botanic gardens, and he edited several books on the subject.