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Jim Gleason says: "Welcome!"
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updated 12/5/2007
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Please allow me to introduce myself...
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I am Jim Gleason,
- currently living in Beverly NJ (a small city just south of Burlington in southern New Jersey)
- formerly of Oaks PA - a very small town outside of Philadelphia, PA
(close to Collegeville and King of Prussia )
- formerly of Albany, NY;
- formerly of Richmond, VA;
- formerly of Metuchen, NJ (where I grew up and first got married);
- three years in Sidney, Australia (where I lived as a young boy of 8 years old and actually played with a neighbor's pet kangaroos - yes, really did!);
and finally/originally,
- born in New Brunswick, NJ back in 1943, March 10th to be exact.
I mention all that only in case you and I may know each other from any of those places - there have been so many wonderful people that have touched my life over those many years.
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Jim & Pam's Wedding
October 2005
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I lived happily with my wife and three children (... most of those children have now moved on to have their own families) for 17 years in Oaks, PA, working nearby in Blue Bell, PA for Unisys Corporation. After a long and varied career, most recently at Unisys I served as a Telephony Manager for this worldwide computer company in the North American Theater infrastructure support team of our WW Information Technology (IT) organization. Unisys and I had been strong partners for over 37 years, a career that has been most fruitful and happy for us both since joining in 1969.
Life changes...
Things have certainly changed over the years, but none more so than in the past few. In 2002 I separated from my wife. In February, 2005 I was caught up in a layoff from Unisys causing a very different type of separation. After several months of looking for a new career in this general south Jersey/Philadelphia area, by fall I accepted that I was retired and moved on to devote full time to my many volunteer pursuits. In October of 2005, I re-married. Today Pam and I share a happy new life in Beverly, NJ, just 30 minutes from downtown Philadelphia where we share many common interests.
A Busy Life...
Life post transplant and even more so now in retirement, has been very fulfilling and fruitful. I "webmaster" (never saw that word used as a verb before) several very different web sites, this personal home page being one, with my book (see below), TRIO, Second Chance, Asbury UMC and Fieldsboro UMC sites as examples of others. It has been my pleasure to serve many different organizations including
> TRIO (as a past Board member, national treasurer and current member)
> UNOS (working on their national Thoracic Transplant committee and its Heart Allocation subcommittee for three years, and currently on the Membership and Professional Standards committee)
> Second Chance heart transplant support group (as Board member and Chapter President)
> MOST (Multi-Organ Support Team) as program chair
> Liaisons for Life as past President and Vice President for many years
> Gift of Life Donor Program both in leading their Speakers' Training Workshops and in many public speaking engagements promoting organ donation both locally and across the country (SanFrancisco, Las Vegas, Florida, etc.)
> NKF as member of their Transaction Council, book reviewer for their web site and also editorial board member for the donor family newsletter
> UNOS as a regular book review columnist for their UPDATE magazine
> founder and leader for workshops on leading a fulfilled life after heart transplant, writing your book about transplant life and other events describing the UNOS and organ allocaiton process
> US Transplant Games medal winning athlete and volunteer for every games held bi-annually since 1996
> Transweb contributor and reporter
> Founder and Instructor for local community computer classes
> Author of "A Gift from the Heart" (see detail below)
... and so the list goes on, for as I say: "Life is GOOD!"
A Gift from the Heart (my book)...
I enjoy working with computers both as a hobby and at work for over 25 years, having gotten my first real PC back in 1979 (a Sperry PC) replacing an even older Commadore 64. Mostly I use my home computers (I have 3) for publishing - civic group newsletters, postings to newsgroups, and my ever growing book, A GIFT FROM THE HEART, almost 100 chapters of multimedia heart transplant related experiences based on my own life post heart transplant. You see, back on October 19th of 1994, at the age of 51, I was saved from death with words I will never forget: "Mr. Gleason, I think we have a heart for you!" - and they did! I would go on to live and share life with my grand-daughter, Carol Marie, born just a year after I would have died, through the gift of this new young heart. In 1998 yet a second beautiful grand-daughter added to the joys of life post transplant, Gail Frances. Then in January 2001, Sabrina Michelle became our 3rd. Since then Shane became our 4th grandchild and first grandson. In January of 2006 we added a fifth, Avery Noelle. With Pam's two, Keira and Caleb, our lives are rich with seven lovely and active grandchildren.
If you do a search on the web, you will find links to many earlier chapters of my book, without their graphics for easy smaller file downloading, as originally offered on-line at the University of Michigan's famous TRANSWEB.ORG site (see them at A Gift from the Heart ) Since putting those earlier chapters in HTML (i.e., web page readable) format up on that web site, there have been many more chapters that are too big to continue publishing this way. Today this entire book is available on a CD ROM that you can read (or print out) on your own computer. The CD is current with whatever I have written up until the date I mail out a copy. If you would like your own free copy of this 1000+ page book (8-1/2 x 11 single spaced pages) with its many multi-media sections, just e-mail me your postal mailing address to gleasonjim@aol.com and I will get it right out to you. That gift is offered in loving thanks and memory of my heart donor (see story below).
Now available on the web...
More recently I have had the support of a fellow heart recipient who offered resources to share many of those 100 text chapters (now with photos and clip art) on his web site. They are downloadable PDF formatted documents and can be selected from the book’s Table of Contents found at:
Meanwhile, I invite you to come and view some photos from my wonderful life since that heart transplant back in the fall of '94....(see "My Links" in the box on this page)
- Jim
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PS: My Donor Story: As transplant recipients, we typically would not know who the donor of our new heart was. Several years ago I received a reply from previous thank you letters offered through our local OPO (i.e., organ procurement organization, the Gift of Life Donor Program here in our area). I am so pleased to tell you: "My heart now has a name: it is Roberto!" To express special thanks to my donor family, I offer support for others and their families who may be facing the same challenge through sharing my book about that heart transplant experience (just click below to either link...)
A Gift From the Heart - the story of one man's heart transplant (to view it directly on the Transweb site) or,
A Gift from the Heart – the story of one man’s heart transplant (to download photo/clip art PDF versions of many more chapters)
Contact me...
Please know how much I enjoy hearing your reaction to this web site and the book. You can write me with your comments at gleasonjim@aol.com
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Sabrina Michelle, our 3rd granddaughter, at 6 months (July '01)
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My Links
Photo album...
last updated 12/5/05
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