Born on March 6th, 1941, in Plainfield, New Jersey, Jim attended Plainfield High School, the Stanton Preparatory Academy and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated in 1962. After completing courses at the U.S. Navy Submarine Training School in New London, Connecticut, he served during the Cold War aboard the USS Sterlet, a World War II submarine that had regular six-month deployments to the Western Pacific. He then transferred to the USS Wahoo, based at Pearl Harbor, with frequent deployments to Japan, until 1966 when he volunteered for the first of two tours during the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, he was deployed with a River Assault Group in the Mekong Delta and worked directly with the Vietnamese Navy. The next two years found him at US Naval Headquarters in London where he worked as a Naval Intelligence Officer. His final tour of duty was with the US Military Advisory Group in Bangkok, Thailand.
Jim was awarded a number of naval awards and citations, including the Bronze star medal with Combat V, Combat Action ribbon, Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, and the National Defense Service Medal. His Vietnamese awards meant a great deal to him; they included the Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, Vietnam Medal of Honor, and the Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation.
As a submariner, Jim loved the Navy, but he resigned in 1972 to live an entirely different sort of life. He and Abby moved to England, where Abby studied for her doctoral degree at the University of Sussex and Jim tried his hand at various sorts of writing. They then lived in Seville, Spain, where Jim completed a novel about Vietnam while Abby taught at Columbus International College and the University of Maryland. He wrote and performed editorial work in Seville and subsequently in New York City; Washington, DC; Clinton, New York; and Northfield, Minnesota, finally retiring to Armenia Mountain in 1999.
His boyhood experiences included building the family house in Plainfield, New Jersey, and enlarging the Shelter Cove summer house with his father, and in retirement he realized the full extent of his skills. He not only helped restore Woodburn to a degree of historical accuracy, but built Fox Run, the home he and Abby had enjoyed since 2000.
He also drew on boyhood experiences with the family World War II Victory Garden, and together he and Abby created extensive and much-appreciated gardens at Woodburn and Fox Run. In addition, because of Jim’s vivid memories of the family roosters named Sergeant and Corporal and Abby’s lifelong animal attachments, they enthusiastically adopted and cared for four horses, as well as innumerable dogs, cats and birds.
Together they maintained friendships locally, domestically and internationally, and Jim was universally known and loved for his adventurous spirit, his quick wit and his often sardonic sense of humor, all underscored by a deep inner kindness. He and Abby also shared an intense love of travel and of history, particularly regarding the Revolutionary and Civil Wars: they constantly traveled to significant sites and continued to visit friends all over the world.
Throughout his life, however, Jim never lost his Navy connections and enjoyed attending regular USNA class reunions. His was indeed a life well lived. In the words of one of his Annapolis company classmates, “Eight bells, Jim. You stood a taut watch!”
Jim is survived by his wife Abby; sister Verna Cobb of Newburgh, New York; brother Stephen Werlock of Gig Harbor, Washington; numerous cousins, nephews and nieces; and special friends Ellen and Bernie McMahon of Washington, DC; Christina Brandon of Norfolk, Virginia; and Regine Matthijsen of Eindhoven, Holland.
The Celebration of Jim Werlock’s Life will be held at Woodburn, the date to be announced.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Gerald W. Vickery, Jr., Funeral & Cremation Services, Inc. 1093 West Main Street, Troy, PA 16947.