BRIDGEWATER  -  James Richard Browne was born on July 15, 1949, in Middleborough.  He passed unexpectedly on Friday, December 20, 2024, at the age of 75, after a massive brain hemorrhage, at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/West Campus in Boston.

He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend to many.

Jim is survived by his wife of 39 years Jackie Browne; his son Gregory (and partner Erin O’Connor with her daughter Eva Nutt); his son Andrew Browne; his four siblings; seven nieces and nephews; and many cousins and loving friends.
He was a man who accepted everyone the way they were with no judgements.

Jim’s school years were spent in Middleborough where he played on the hockey team coached by his father John Browne.  He went on to two years of college and then joined the US Navy where he earned the rank of QM3 E-4 Quartermaster aboard the USS Kitty Hawk.  He served in the Vietnam War with an honorable discharge in June of 1971. After the Navy, he went to Cape Cod Community College for four more years on the GI bill and earned an Associate’s Degree.

Throughout his life, he pursued many interests including being a paperboy, an altar boy, a turkey farmer, a cook, and an interior painter.  Most of his adult career was spent as a Correctional Officer in Bridgewater, a storage facility assistant and a private security guard.  He was a jack of all trades!

In 1979, Jim purchased his first home and met his wife to be.  He became a husband in 1985 to Jacalyn Susan Myers.  They became parents to Gregory in 1987 and Andrew in 1990.  He enjoyed spending time helping the Boy Scout troops when his sons were young.  Jim purchased his second home in Bridgewater in 1990 where he lived with his family until his passing.  He also spent many summers maintaining a beloved family home on Onset Island and enjoying the many gifts of the sea with his family.  Jim was a lover of music, nature, fishing, messing about in storms and howling at the full moon.  It cannot go without saying that he was the King of “puttering”.  He religiously fed the birds, chipmunks and squirrels.  He tended to his flower beds, bushes, trees, and vegetable gardens, but his favorite was his artificial pond.  Over the years, he had a variety of guests in his pond: Koi, gold fish, large mouth bass, snakes, frogs and all manner of birds.  He could often be found sitting in his Adirondack chair just watching the birds come down to bathe in the pond and the chipmunks running up the walkway to eat the chicken scratch he would leave out for them. This, he would say, would be taking a break from “puttering”.

Jim was a one of a kind, a unique individual who will be dearly missed by many, many people.

Family and friends are welcome to the visiting hours at the Ashley Funeral Home, 35 Oak Street, Middleborough, on Friday, December 27, 2024, from 1:00-4:00 PM, with a Prayer Service starting at 4:00 PM.

Interment services will be held at the Massachusetts National Cemetery, 1 Connery Avenue, Bourne, on FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2025, at 11:15 AM.

Donations may be sent in his memory to The Buzzards Bay Coalition, 114 Front Street, New Bedford, MA 02740,  www.savebuzzardsbay.org or to The Wareham Land Trust, 219 Main Street, Suite E, P.O. Box 718, Wareham, MA 02571,   www.warehamlandtrust.org