Jim Nielsen

Manchester Central High School

Class of 1957

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Jim Nielsen - Class of 1957 - Manchester Central High School

First Name	Jim
Last Name	Nielsen
Graduation Year	Class of 1957
Gender	Male
Hometown	Manchester, New Hampshire
Relationship Status	Married
About Me	Born raised and educated in Manchester NH, I joined the New Hampshire Army National Guard at 14, the U. S. Air Force at 17. After high school I lived in Wethersfield, England as part of the 20th Fighter Bomber Wing; then was transferred to Louveciennes, France Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, assigned to the Headquarters, 1141st Special Activities Squadron. I returned to the United States in 1960. I worked for a number of companies, in Manchester, was the Assitant Director of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and would be asked to become a member of the Greater Mancester (NH) Jaycees, an experience that would become one of the most important in my lifetime. Eventually I would leave Manchester to work for the National Headquarters of the Jaycees in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Formerly the Junior Chamber of Commerce; now known as The Junior Chamber). During that time I would be responsible for programs in community health, crime, and youth activities. I had the opportunity to launch programs dealing with Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Community Drug Strategies, Hunger, Multiple Sclerosis, and a number of efforts to help train community leadership throughout the nation. I returned to Manchester at a time when the country was in a recession and weathered its impact; I would lose every financial and material possesion I had, and spent months underemployed or unemployed, and held all kinds of jobs until things fell into place. I was helped by a number of friends in different ways, but eventually I was able to repay all of them financially or in-kind, but it took me nearly 20 years to do so . I could never have done it the way I did if I was married; and it cost me relationships with women I really enjoyed. I have enjoyed some wonderful romantic relationships; and also had some whose loss was devastatiing to me, but from first kiss to the last goodbye they have all left a place in my heart and my memory. I became part of the administration and faculty of the New Hampshire Community Technical College in Manchester (now Manchester Community College) as its marketing director, acting dean of the Division of Community Education, assistant to the president for long range planning, and served as an associate professor teaching: Sociology, College English, Technical Communications, Business Communications, Human Relations and the Organization, Multi-Ethnic Cross Cultural Relations, Contemporary Social Problems, Government, the College Success Seminar, and Consumer Economics. In the early years of my time with the college I helped organize a major effort to deal with restoring college funding to enable a newly constructed building to become fully staffed and operational, overcoming the legislative cuts that would have made the new addition a "white elephant." The college would be recognized nationally for efforts made in Public Relations for its 40th Anniversary celebration and a series of college degree brochures. I advanced ideas to undertake a major college study and bring about a more broadened approach to marketing efforts that would tell the colleges' story. When I completed my career here the three ring binder notebook of the colleges' public relations history and background that was given to me when I began was replaced with a four draw cabinet filled with archival material. I retired after 26 years. Perhaps the one thing I have enjoyed most has been to play a role in the community I live in. During the 90's I had an opportunity to tell the stories of the school music programs for almost a decade. I traveled with a couple of the high school bands and wrote, placed, and did whatever it took to tell the stories of these splendid students. One of my biggest rewards was to initiate and organize the effort to acquire new band uniforms for Manchester's high schools. The strategy I initially recommended was rejected by others; it eventually became the strategy that led to success. Every time I see those bands perform, I get a warm feeling. Right now I hope to be able to help Manchester (NH) High School Central's Band with its Operation Pearl Harbor fund raising effort to enable them to attend the 70th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Commemorative Ceremony in Hawaii. Four Central alumni were at Pearl Harbor, only one came home. On another occasion I had the opportunity to recommend a strategy for settling a city-wide strike by the police and fire departments which had become a national news story. In the 80's I was the founding president of the Friends of the Manchester City Library Putting together the second Greater Manchester (NH) Jaycees reunion in 1996 was an experience down memory lane and a terriffic gathering of friends who made things happen in this city. The first reunion was held during my year as chapter president. It is unfortunate that today not one Jaycee chapter exists in the State of New Hampshire. As the 21st century began, I had an opportunity to become part of the Manchester Central High School Class of '57 reunion committee, serving as its master of ceremonies at the 47th year gathering. I became the chairman for the 50th Anniversary Reunion where I was ably assisted by a tremendous committee and assistant chairman, Dick Proulx, whose computer skills were put to use for a very successful event. Today I participate in those things I wish to do, biding my time as I see fit. One of those efforts will be to work at reelecting President Obama, and providing a supporting cast of Democrats to help change what I consider the most disasterous year of legislative effort I have witnessed both within the State of New Hampshire and the Nation. Years ago I decided to be an Independent or Non-affiliated voter and political participant. I have worked for both political parties and find as the years have gone by that I can no longer back most of the Republican ideas or platform, and while I don't agree with everything Democrats work towards I find they are, and have been, heading in a direction I find more appropiate to my beliefs. I have appreciated the administrations of George Bush I, William Jefferson Clinton, and find that President Barack Obama got handed the worst possible slate of conditions from the previous administration one could be given. President Obama has attempted to solve those issues, but he has a most recalcitrant Congress to deal with who are willing to bring this country to a point of financial disaster and not pay the obligations we are already committed to, make working Americans feel the pain even more, and unwilling to increase taxes or raise the debt ceiling to deal with the debt he inherited, something Ronald Reagan eventually did, raise the debt ceiling and increase taxes, although recession and debt still occurred; and tax increases during the Clinton administration created an unprecedented era of economic growth, jobs, and left a surplus which was frittered away by his successor George W. Bush. The debt situation we are in is probably best explained by David Stockman, Reagan's budget director, when he said on Bill Mahr's Real Time (HBO), "This debt explosion has resulted not from government spending by Democrats, but instead the Republican Party's embrace, about three decades ago of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they results from tax cuts." President Raegan learned the hard...(read more)