James Byron Kenyon

PINE PLAINS —James Byron Kenyon, 82, of Athens, Ga., died peacefully at his home on Nov. 23, 2009.  

James Kenyon was born in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and grew up on a farm in Pine Plains. He was the son of the late Myrtle Lualice (Baer) and Byron Benjamin Kenyon.  

He attended Avon School in Connecticut and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.  He graduated from Harvard and received his Ph.D. in urban geography from the University of Chicago.  He was an economist at the New York Port Authority before moving to the warm south, where he was a professor of urban geography at the University of Georgia for 34 years.   

He worked on the Athens Model City Study and for the Department of Treasury and Economics in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

He held a pilot’s license, and was an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He claimed he taught the ducks to fly and the ants the alphabet.  He loved watching the nesting wood ducks on the banks of the Middle Oconee River.  

He was loved dearly by his wife, Jane Jarvis Jackson Kenyon; his sister, Virginia Ann MacFarlane; his children, Cynthia Jane Kenyon, Nancy Virginia Sont and Charles Lloyd Kenyon; and his six beloved grandchildren.

His membership in St. Stephen’s Anglican church in Athens was dear to his heart. Services were held there on Nov. 30. Online tributes may be made at mem.com. The Bernstein Funeral Home in Athens has charge of arrangements.