James R. Schaa

James R. Schaa died Sunday, January 23, at the age of 85. He was a 20-year career U.S. Air Force veteran and an accountant at the Arkansas Department of Health for 15 years. He was a devoted husband and a doting father.

James was born September 15, 1936, in Marshalltown, IA, to Heye B. and Elma Mae (Rouse) Schaa. He was an only child, but he joked that he was raised by the community of Grundy Center, IA, as his mother had eyes everywhere in town, and he couldn’t get away with anything.

He is survived by a son Bruce (Wendy) of Hillsboro, NM; a daughter Ruth of Pocahontas, AR; and various cousins who reside in Iowa.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 64 years Villa Ann Statler Schaa and his parents.

James graduated from Grundy Center High School. After graduation he joined the USAF; he completed basic training at Lackland AFB, TX, and he was assigned as a records clerk in the hospital’s Radiology Department. He met his future wife, a USAF Airman 1st Class. His tours of duty included Chambley AFB, France; Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam War; Holloman AFB, NM, where he was a Boy Scouts leader, a chairman of the local PTA chapter, and an usher/accountant for the Protestant congregation; Andrews AFB, MD, where he was Sergeant Major of Malcolm Grove Medical Center in the administrative office.

When he retired as a Senior Master Sergeant, James used the GI Bill to attend college at the University of Central Arkansas; he earned a BBA in Marketing with an Accounting minor. He began his first semester of graduate studies when he was hired by the Arkansas Department of Health as an accountant. He frequently testified before the Legislative Audit to explain the budgets and the expenditures of the Department of Health, especially the county home health nursing program.

After retiring from the Department of Health, James and his wife would walk for miles throughout Conway. Local renovation crews invited them to inspect the houses that were being remodeled and being built. People who saw them on their daily walks referred to them as the “walkers.”

James will be cremated and inurned at the National Military Cemetery in Fort Smith, AR, where his wife is also inurned. 

Instead of floral arrangements, donations may be sent to the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA, or the American Humane Society.