Honoring Jim Wallace: Continuing His Legacy of Mentorship at SRA
Written By Wendy Tokuda, Award-Winning Journalist and Founder of SRA
One person can make all the difference in the world. For three Students Rising Above students, that person was Jim Wallace. He was a humble, gentle man, who never wanted credit for anything, but while no one was looking, he made a profound impact on so many lives.
SRA alum, Douglas Montiel had a cancer scare just as he was getting ready to graduate from Sacramento State. He needed a biopsy that required surgery and he was terrified. On the day of the procedure in San Francisco, his mentor Jim Wallace was by his side when Douglas checked in at 7 AM, and he was still there when it was all over, and the biopsy came out clean. Jim was always there. After high school. After college.Just saying he was my college mentor is an understatement,” says Douglas. “He was a father figure. He was family.” For a young man growing up without his father in the home, it meant everything. “He was the most important thing SRA did for me… I told him, you are not my college mentor. You’re my life mentor.”
Jim was a life mentor for Vincent Alvarez too. Vincent was at San Rafael High, when Jim began mentoring him. He hadn’t known him for long when football season started. After a game against Redwood High, Vince was heading for the locker room, when he heard a voice yell, HEY! In the crowd, he was shocked to see Jim. Vince couldn’t believe that he would actually come to see him play. “That’s when I knew he was for real,” remembers Vincent.
That was 17 years ago, and the beginning of a long, close relationship. At first, they would have breakfast together at the I-Hop. When Vincent moved to Chicago for a big job, they would text or check in by phone. Vincent became a man with Jim by his side – a professional, a married man, a father. Growing up with a single mom, Jim was the first positive male role model in Vincent’s life, who says “He gave me a sense of security I never grew up with.” A sounding board. Always there. A soothing presence. “I never heard a judgmental thing come out of his mouth.”
It was something about Jim that made these special relationships possible. “He was very kind… He would always tell me don’t be so hard on yourself”, Jim would tell Rising Star, Josh Collins, who is now a student at Bates College in Maine. He would encourage Josh, saying “you have to keep at it, no matter how hard it gets, just keep at it”. And it was hard for Josh, whose father was not in the picture, and whose mother passed away. He had a heart condition that required surgery. “Jim was always there to tell me things were going to be okay… I miss his voice. He never spoke a whole lot but when he spoke it had a lot of impact.”
Jim’s wife, Marilyn, knew all about his mentees because after his regular phone calls with them, he would update her. “He loved those boys,” she says. “He always felt it was about the student, not about me. He knew they needed a person to listen to them.” But Jim would also tell Marilyn how much he respected these young men- how strong they were and how they were able to rise above their problems. Their ability to keep striving forward. “He really admired that,” remembers Marilyn.
Jim didn’t talk about himself, but when his mentees did learn of his accomplishments in tech, working his last job at Stanford, they were blown away. “That this man would spend time mentoring me!” marvels Vincent. As Josh explains it, to have someone so successful “rooting for me,” meant so much.
When Jim was diagnosed with leukemia, time became precious. Douglas would travel from Sacramento to see him as often as possible. “I told him I want to be more like him.” But perhaps what impacted Douglas the most was something Jim said to him: “I admire you. That was mind-blowing for me…I admire you as a person and what a leader you are.” Douglas had never thought of himself as a leader, until Jim told him he was.
Vincent and his wife were planning on bringing their new little girl to California so Jim could meet his “unofficial granddaughter.” But time ran out and Jim passed away this May 28th. For Vincent, “the thought of him not being there is unfathomable.”
Jim Wallace is still here, living in these three young men. Life mentor. Father figure. A constant.
Mentoring is just one of the services SRA offers it’s scholars. And Jim showed all of us the power that can have. We are reaching out now to ask that we remember him with a gift to keep his work going.
“I can hear his voice saying, that’s great, Josh.” And Josh Collins may hear that voice forever.
If you’d like to honor Jim’s memory as a lifelong mentor and volunteer, you can make a gift to SRA here: Honoring Jim Wallace: Continuing His Legacy of Mentorship at SRA .
