James Forbes Robertson, of Ponte Vedra, was born on December 10, 1950, in Butte, Montana and passed on exactly 75 years later on December 10, 2025. He was the son of Barbara Mack and Forbes Smith Robertson. He spent his early years living in various places following the career of his geologist father – Seattle, Issaquah, and Bellevue, WA., Salvador-Bahia, Brazil - but lived mostly in Elsah, IL. where his dad and his grandfather were professors, at various times, at Principia College.

A gentle giant with a height of 6’4”, Jim had an early love for cooking partly because he realized that if he cooked, he did not have to clean up. As a teenager, he held local catering jobs and spent several summers cooking at resorts and camps. He often felt that he was the black sheep of the family because he did not follow an academic path but chose instead to earn an associate’s degree at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, which was then located in New Haven, CT. His culinary expertise provided him with a lifetime career.

In June of 1975, he married Carolyn Lowrey and they soon started a family with him working various jobs which allowed him to participate in child rearing. In 1972, he was offered a full-time job in dining services at the Upper School of Principia, located in St. Louis. He spent almost 35 years in total at Principia, with a brief stint in Oklahoma. He eventually became Associate Director of Dining Services for both the St. Louis and College campuses. This enabled him to provide a private school education for his then four children while allowing for more family-friendly hours than working in a restaurant. As part of his job, he was responsible for feeding notables like Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, and Robert Duvall, when they spoke at the College.

For eighteen summers he was the head chef at Cedars Camps in Lebanon, MO., a camp for young Christian Scientists, where he provided food and laughter to hundreds of kids through the years.

In 1996, he married Sarajane Auman Wagner and added her three children to his family. They were married for 29 years.

Upon retirement in 2013, he moved to a Del Webb community in Ponte Vedra, Florida, where he walked in the pool daily, played canasta, and enjoyed doing cross stitch while watching football games. He was a life-long Christian Scientist and active church member.

Jim is survived by his wife, Sarajane, and four children – Nathan (Elizabeth), Amy Carre (Victor), Norman, and Wendy Robertson - in addition to three step-daughters – Jennifer Wagner Music (Kevin), Amy Wagner Cowart (Robert), and Wendy Wagner – and eleven grandchildren. Other survivors are his brother Bruce (JJ) and sister Nolen Joyce Provenzano (George) of Alton, IL.

‍