James Sheffield

Jamie was a writer and an educator who had a deep love for the natural world. Born and raised in New York City, he spent his summers and most of his life in the Adirondacks. A graduate of St Lawrence University, Syracuse University, and Goddard College, he spent 18 years working at Lake Placid Middle/High School. In 2016, Jamie and his wife, Gail Gibson Sheffield, relocated to New Hampshire where he focused on his writing and worked as an academic advisor at Landmark College in Vermont.

Jamie published his first novel in 2013, “Here Be Monsters: A Tyler Cunningham Adirondack Mystery.” The book received the 2013 Adirondack Literary Award for best fiction novel and launched his Smart Pig publishing house. Jamie went on to write four novels and several shorts in the Tyler Cunningham series. After earning his MFA in writing, he published two more collections of shorts, a mystery novel based in New Hampshire, and a series of children’s books featuring various members of his tortoise Creep. He also published stories in various collections, several magazine articles, online forum pieces and documented his life through essays published in his Adirondack Diary blog, adirondackdiary.blogspot.com, his author’s website, www.jamiesheffield.com, and his writers’ group site on Facebook.

An avid hobbyist, Jamie immersed himself in a variety of different interests that started as online communities and grew into face-to-face friendships. First in his heart was his son Benjamin. Jamie was dedicated to showing his son the world and passing on his own curiosity and fascination with this planet. The two of them travelled all over the world together sharing their love for discovery, cooking, the environment and animals. Jamie adopted and loved many animals throughout his life and made it possible for other animals to find their forever homes. He felt humans had a promise to keep with the animals in our world … they bring us comfort and dedication… we owe them the best possible life.

Jamie is survived by his wife of 26 years, Gail Gibson Sheffield; his son Benjamin Gibson Sheffield, his parents Jill and James Sheffield of Cornwall, Connecticut; his sister Sarah Tod Sheffield of Brooklyn; and his “brother” William Bradley Peebles and his partner Lucio Gonzalez of New York City; as well as his surviving animals, Olive, Bowie and the tortoise Creep. The family is planning a celebration of Jamie’s life on June 1 in Lake Placid. In lieu of flowers, the family asks folks to support, in Jamie’s name, either the Tri-Lakes Humane Society of Saranac Lake, or the humane society of their choice.