Great Heart

Jim Hutchinson was a big-hearted man.

A seventh-generation Randolph native, Jim was big in a lot of ways. His presence filled a room. He was of considerable girth, and he customarily wore a big smile. His beard was big and full enough that he could play Santa Claus without a fake one (as he did). He had an unforgettably big, hearty voice.

But even with all these oversized attributes, his heart was still the biggest thing about him. It was this—his genuine love of people, his desire to see them as happy and fulfilled as he seemed to be—that you noticed when you talked to him. It is what led him into public service when he returned to Randolph after a 20-year career out-of-state. It was what made him plunge into town affairs as selectman for four years, most of them as an energetic chairman. His sprit was manifest in the way he conducted those meetings, treating all who came before him with unfailing respect, whether he agreed with them or not, treating them also with the great good humor that rolled so easily off his tongue and from his eyes, and helped make him a natural leader and coalition-builder.

That same impetus led him to serve in the state legislature, where his broad knowledge and quick mind landed him on the Appropriations Committee after just one term.

And it was pure heart that brought Jim together with the Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports program (VASS), which teaches handicapped people how to ski and provides special equipment for them. This would be the passion that drove him like no other for the last 10 years. He roped his family into accompanying him in trips to Ascutney, then Pico and other ski areas almost every single week. He did it simply to help people widen their horizons of what they could accomplish—while giving them a taste of the sport of skiing.

And did he love to ski! Every year for a long time, Hutchinson put in 100 days or more on the ski slopes. In his passion for the Adaptive Ski organization, he eventually became the organization's executive director for two years, though he refused to accept the paycheck that went with the job. He then put himself in charge of the VASS 100-Mile-Run, an enormous organizational effort that annually raised about $30,000 for VASS.

Jim Hutchinson's heart stopped beating this week Monday. It was much, much too soon, but before it shut down, that great heart had reached out to hundreds of individual people, had spread great dollops of enjoyment and good cheer, and had made Randolph, Vermont, and the world a better place.