Born in Clydebank, the fifth of eight children of Patrick and Annie Kearns, he was educated at Our Holy Redeemer Primary School, Clydebank, and St Patrick’s High School in Dumbarton.
He gained the Dux Medal at St Patrick’s during a school career interrupted by hospitalisation to recover from diphtheria and the 1941 Clydebank Blitz.
Kearns and his younger brothers and sisters were evacuated after the Blizt and spent most of the rest of the war living with the Blackie book publishing family in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Hill House in Helensburgh.
On leaving school, Kearns attended Glasgow University. He was called up to serve in the Royal Tank Regiment, but returned to graduate with an MA in geography and English, going on to qualify as a secondary school teacher.
Short spells teaching in Croy, East Dunbartonshire, and in the schools where he was educated were followed by his appointment as principal teacher of geography at the then new St Columba’s High School in Clydebank.
After a brief period as deputy head at St Stephen’s Primary in Dalmuir, Kearns returned to St Patrick’s as principal teacher of guidance. In 1953, he married his boyhood sweetheart, Clydebank primary teacher Josie Boyce, with whom he had five children. Kearns for many years was chairperson of the Don Bosco Society, which later became known as the Scottish Catholic Teachers’ Benevolent Fund.
Away from school, and to the end, Kearns was a great letter writer and occasional poet. He became a regular speaker at Burns Suppers as well as an after-dinner speaker.
After he retired, while his wife was still teaching at St Eunan’s Primary, he was a frequent visitor to the school, contributing artwork and ideas for class projects and giving impromptu history lessons.
He bore a remarkable resemblance to the Santa Claus figure who appeared annually at St Eunan’s and at many other schools and children’s clubs in Clydebank.
He also contributed to the school’s preparations for children to receive the sacraments, and he became a hard-working member of the St Patrick’s High School FP’s reunion committee.
A life-long lover of choral music, he sang for several years with Clydebank Deanery Choir, then Clydebank Male Voice Choir, serving as the latter’s president.
Latterly, he also sang with an informal barbershop group which enjoyed performing in hospitals, homes and hospices. Over five decades, Kearns was a member of Clydebank Bowling Club, where his father was a club champion in the 1930s and his grandfather a founding member in 1884.
His brother-in-law, Glasgow University and Harvard-educated Frank Meehan, a retired United States diplomat and ambassador, paid a warm tribute to Kearns at his funeral service.
“Jim knew everything and everyone. He was a skilled writer and story teller, artist, poet and teacher and a very good friend,” he said. The shock of his wife’s death in 2002 took a heavy toll on Kearns, but he gradually returned to a more familiar pattern of life, attending daily Mass and assisting in parish matters at St Eunan’s in Clydebank.
His work for the parish, the school and community was widely recognised and Kearns and his wife separately received the Cardinal Winning medal.
Kearns is survived by his children, Marian, Brendan, Jim, Paul and Jerry, and 14 grandchildren.
Clydebank Male Voice Choir sang at his funeral Mass at St Eunan’s, which was concelebrated by six priests, with the huge attendance fitting tribute to a talented and popular figure loved and respected by all who knew him.
Teacher, singer, poet, artist and church worker
Born November 29, 1927
Died November 24, 2009
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article