James Peter Odendahl, 84, passed away on September 23, 2026 after a brief illness. He was an honest and kind man, dedicated to his family, friends, and community. He loved reading, puzzles of all sorts, and puns (especially the really “awful” ones) and was an ardent fan of science fiction. Jim was a born engineer with a sensible solution for any problem. He never went anywhere without a handkerchief in his pocket.

Born at home on September 22, 1942, in Rock Creek, Minnesota, to Felix and Edna Odendahl, Jim was a middle child with six siblings, and they moved the family farm from Minnesota to Missouri when he was six. For early elementary education, he attended a one-room schoolhouse where classes were taught by his oldest brother, Richard. He was “neither absent nor tardy” in his eighth-grade year, a source of some pride and a goal for presence and punctuality he maintained throughout his life.

No great fan of the high school experience, he was a hands-on learner and avid reader, and followed what proved to be the family path to engineering. Jim enrolled in the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1964. After a brief stint working for the State of Illinois, he returned to school to earn his Master of Science in Sanitary Engineering.

He began his environmental engineering career with the State of Missouri in the Department of Natural Resources, eventually becoming the Director of the Division of Environmental Quality in the late 1970s. In 1980, he moved to Weyerhaeuser Company’s Office of the Environment in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was the Area Manager for Arkansas/Oklahoma for ten years before advancing to the corporate headquarters in Tacoma, Washington. There he was the Director of the Toxic and Solid Waste Team who, under his leadership, won the prestigious President’s Award in 1992. After a long career traveling to sites in Canada, Australia, Argentina and about a dozen US states, he retired in September 2001.

Soon after retiring, Jim settled in Sun City, South Carolina Lakes in Indian Land, SC. He served on the HOA Board and as part of the Landscaping Committee, putting his engineering background to work to help his neighbors. He was a member of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church where he served as an usher and where he found great fellowship and comfort.

Jim leaves behind his daughter, Jules Odendahl-James (and her spouse Kelly Rowett- James), and one grandchild, Linden James; his siblings Hubert Odendahl, Eleanor Kloeppel, Doris Sharp, and Ted Odendahl, as well as many nieces and nephews; and former spouse Betty. He is preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Richard and Leo, and Bonnie George, his soulmate.

Jim read every one of Robert A. Heinlein’s books, many more than once, and so it seems appropriate to include this passage from one Heinlein’s short stories, Requiem.

“Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad I did live and gladly die

And I laid me down with a will!

This be the verse you grave for me—

‘Here he lies where he longed to be,

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.’ ”

A service in celebration of his life will be held Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 11 AM in St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Waxhaw, NC. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to St. Margaret’s or to the charity of your choice.