BY MILT THOMAS

James W. “Jim” Coffey, who passed away at age 87 on April 16, is best remembered as a successful commercial realtor, founder of the 100 Club for families of firefighters and policeman killed in the line of duty, Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012, the man responsible for the Mueller Center, Courtesy House Truck Stop and a great friend to all who knew him. But there was another Jim Coffey that many people never knew, a Jim Coffey born into abject poverty, supporting his family from the age of eight.

Born in a small Georgia town that no longer exists, Jim came from a family of sharecroppers, a form of bondage from which few escaped. After his father left the family in 1934 during the Great Depression, he had to become a sharecropper himself at eight years old, working a mule-drawn plow 16 hours a day, attending school only between the fall harvest and spring planting.

He managed to graduate from high school with his contemporaries though, enlisting in the army at the height of World War II. He served on Okinawa and in the occupation of Japan afterwards.

When he returned home in 1946, he decided to better himself and moved to Florida, joining his father in Ft. Pierce as a tomato farmer. His first big break came when he gave up tomato farming in 1955 and went to work at a Vero Beach service station. His work ethic was without peer, and that quality drove him to manage, then own his own gas station, eventually going to work for Earman Oil Company, the largest local fuel distributor. His innovative approach to service stations gained national attention, even a story in Time magazine in the 1970s.  Rising to CEO of Earman Oil, Jim built the Courtesy House Truck Stop on SR60, east of I-95.  At that time, I-95 ended in Vero Beach and to protect his investment in the truck stop, he bought virtually all the property around the exit.

I-95 was eventually completed and then Jim developed the Outlet Center and all other commercial businesses around it. After selling Earman Oil and the truck stop, itself a model for future truck stops around the country, Jim became a commercial realtor, an occupation he enjoyed almost as much as his golf game.

Jim Coffey never really retired. At the Enterpreneur of the Year banquet where he was honored last year, he gave a rousing speech, just like the speeches he gave years earlier when speaking to petroleum industry groups around the country. Most people don’t know that he convinced his friend, Jim Mueller, to help establish a campus in Vero Beach for Indian River Community, now State, College. He served many years on the IRCC board of trustees.

I had the pleasure of knowing Jim Coffey and experiencing his zest for life right up to the end. He told me a favorite saying that motivated him through life: “On the plains of hesitation rest the bones of countless thousands, who upon the threshold of victory, sat down to wait and waiting they died.”

The sparkle in his eyes affected everyone around him.  Now that sparkle is no longer among us, but when I look up to the sky, I feel the sun is a lot brighter than it was before. And I would swear I see the sun winking back at me.