James Cunningham

    James R. Cunningham, 66, a professor emeritus at Burlington County College in New Jersey, where he had taught for nearly three decades, died of sepsis Friday, August 3, 2001 at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden, NJ. He had lived in Medford for the last 30 years. He was born in Rochester, and raised in Caledonia.

   Mr. Cunningham was an English professor at Burlington County College in Pemberton Township until retiring in 1999. He was one of the college’s first faculty members when hired in 1970.

   "He was a very rigorous, demanding teacher…He loved what he was doing whether teaching composition or literature," said Chuck Swannell, also a longtime English professor at the college. In the early 1970s, the two professors wrote The English Connection on techniques of writing. Bill Hatcher, another English professor at the college, said: "Jim was probably the most well-read person I’ve ever met in my life. He was a wildly curious man" whose interests included poetry, jazz, film, theater and language arts. "Jim always saw some connection between all of those and baseball," Hatcher said. "Beyond his family…baseball was probably his greatest love."

   Mr. Cunningham also was a consultant for the gifted-and-talented program at the New Albany School in Cinnaminson, where for the last decade he had worked with elementary school students learning to write poetry.

   "In one sense, he was always a kid at heart, and when he would work with those kids he became a big kid who knew poetry," Swannell said. "He just glowed when he talked about those kids. It was one of his favorite teaching activities." He not only taught poetry but also was a poet. Hatcher recalled that anyone who had ever received an e-mail from Mr. Cunningham or seen his Internet posting "knew of his mastery of the limerick"

   From 1964 to 1970, Mr. Cunningham was a professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He graduated from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY, in 1957. He received his master’s degree in English literature from St. John’s University in Jamaica, NY, and did postgraduate work at the University of Buffalo. He was a member of the National and New Jersey Education Associations and of the National Council of Teachers of English.

   He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Margaret Shannon Cunningham; a son, Paul S. Cunningham, MD and his wife Laura of Alexandria, VA; daughters Christy E. LeValley and her husband Craig of Palm Harbor, FL, and Laura K. Oattes and her husband Darren of Shamong, NJ; six grandchildren.

   Friends called at 2:00 followed by a memorial service at 3:00 on August 18th at the Bradley Funeral Home, Route 73 and Evesham Road, Marlton, NJ. Memorial contributions may be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, 706 Haddonfield Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002.