Jim Stark passed away peacefully at his home in Ossian, Indiana on Nov. 20, 2015. He was 73.
Jim was an inventor, entrepreneur, pilot, musician, writer, workshop tinkerer, mechanic, and an all-around interesting guy.
He enjoyed happy hour (three-beer limit unless scotch was available), playing guitar and the ukulele, traveling and camping with his wife Kathy, passionately rooting for Purdue, hot tubbing, writing stories, John Prine music, and checking himself out of the hospital. Jim and Kathy played music wherever they went on their travels across the country. Jim founded Blackstone Laboratories back in 1985, a successful company that is still going strong today. He was building his own airplane – a Van’s RV12 – just before he died.
Jim survived a tour in Vietnam, crashing an airplane, two heart attacks and two heart surgeries, jumping out of an airplane (barely) when he was 70, and the doctors in Indianapolis before lung cancer got him in the end.
His spirit is among the stars, and he will be greatly missed by all who loved him.
