Jim Leavitt passed away on March 16, 2013 at Raksha Care Home in Albany, CA after a lengthy illness. He was 76 years old. Born in 1936, the youngest of eight children, Jim grew up on a small farm in the Central Valley town of Riverbank, California. The only child still at home, he began working at a very young age to help support his mother after his father died. As a Mexican-American and son of a widowed mother who spoke only Spanish, Jim faced tough times growing up, but he also had fond childhood memories of his mom's warm tortillas, fresh cow's milk, and the juicy cling peaches enjoyed while working in the orchards and canneries during summer months. Being raised in a bilingual, bicultural home and witnessing firsthand the hard lives of Mexican-American workers and Japanese-American farmers during World War II taught him that "you have to treat people fairly" - something he tried to do his entire life.

After leaving Riverbank, Jim went on to graduate in Police Administration from San Jose State College. He started his career as a deputy Sheriff/Detective with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. He was then recruited by the Office of Naval Intelligence and served as a Special Agent (civilian), specializing in counterintelligence activities and major crime investigations within the Navy and Marines during the Vietnam War, stationed in Vietnam, the Philippines and Reno, Nevada. Read More