Camden, Maine - James Dean, 72, died peacefully at his home in Camden, Maine, on January 21, 2025. Jim was born on September 13, 1952, in Liverpool, England, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1963. He was the son of the late Albert and Elizabeth Dean.

Jim graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts, continued on to study audiology in graduate school in Wisconsin, and then completed a doctoral program in Arizona. He worked in several hearing clinics throughout Maine and beyond, but experienced his true calling teaching students in the speech and hearing department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He enjoyed witnessing his students' growth as they engaged with babies and children and their families, as well as adults who required hearing health services. He was loved by his students and was an inspiration to them. Jim helped to develop a cross-border clinical program in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, which continues to provide hearing services to Mexican families, as well as to serve as a valuable training opportunity for speech and hearing students.

Jim loved the Sonoran desert, which soothed his restless spirit and he spent many years riding horseback on the trails. He passed summers at the family cottage in Sorrento, Maine, and a favorite activity was to row his scull around the nearby islands of Frenchman Bay during the calm, early mornings. He would return from those rows as if touched by magic.

Jim is survived by his wife, Craig Anne Carlisle of Camden; and his brother, Keith Dean (Karin) of Hull, Massachusetts. His sister, Susan Olson, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, died several weeks after Jim's death. Jim leaves many beloved members of an extended family, as well as close friends with whom he traveled many a road on his motorcycle.

With Alzheimer's disease advancing, Jim felt it was time to go and he chose the season and the means of his death with consideration. It was a death with courage and dignity and a testament to a rich life which he met with enthusiasm, appreciation, humor, and kindness to others. He will be deeply missed and much remembered.