11/19/2025
James Osborne Street – beloved husband, father, and grandfather; accomplished statistician; dear friend; and 47-year resident of Ridgefield, CT – passed away on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, in Ridgefield, with his family beside him. He was 85.
James (“Jim”) Street was born on December 17, 1939, in Wilmette, IL, to Charles F. Street, Sr., and Margaret Osborne Street. One of Jim’s earliest memories was helping his father tend to the neighborhood’s “Victory Garden” during World War II. Another early memory was the steady stream of piano students visiting the family’s home to take lessons with his mother, who was a gifted pianist. As a child, Jim developed a love for classical music and a hobby of collecting records and building his own audio equipment from kits he ordered in the mail. This passion for music and delight in tinkering with audio equipment would last his entire life.
After graduating from New Trier High School in 1958, Jim moved to Colorado Springs, CO, to attend Colorado College. It was there that Jim met the love of his life, Lois Abercrombie. Their first date was on March 19, 1960, and they were married on August 26, 1961. Their 64-year marriage was one for the ages: all those who saw them together – from the friends who knew them in college all the way to the caregivers who assisted Jim during the final weeks of his life – were struck by the depth and joy of their devotion to one another.
In college, Jim enjoyed math, physics, and philosophy, ultimately choosing math as his major. After graduation, Jim and Lois drove their rickety blue VW bus, laden with all their worldly belongings and barely able to make it up hills, to California, so that Jim could begin graduate school in mathematics at Stanford while Lois taught high school English. While in California, Jim and Lois lived extremely frugally, saving up for a trip they wanted to take to Europe. After Jim completed his MA at Stanford, the couple spent nearly a year traveling around Europe before Jim took his first teaching job at Centre College in Danville, KY. While in Danville, Jim decided to get his PhD in statistics at the University of Kentucky, where he taught for several years before joining the faculty at the University of Iowa. The couple’s first child, Sharon, was born while they lived in Kentucky, and their second child, Al, was born in Iowa.
In 1978, Jim left academia to take a job at Boehringer Ingelheim in Ridgefield. The young family thrived in Ridgefield, enjoying winters skating on Turtle Pond and summers swimming in Mamanasco Lake. During his 23-year career at Boehringer, Jim enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow statisticians and found interest and meaning in his work to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs being tested in clinical trials. He retired in 2001. In retirement, Jim spent time with family and friends; traveled to Japan, Italy, and the Czech Republic; read a great deal of philosophy; and avidly pursued his interests in music, hi-fi, and computers.
Jim was the most loving imaginable husband, father, and grandfather. He enthusiastically supported his children’s careers in philosophy and music, encouraging and enabling them to pursue what they loved. Jim will be remembered by all who knew him for his gentle spirit, his kindness and decency, his sense of humor, his intellectual brilliance, and his love for his family, friends, music, philosophy, and the scientific exploration of the universe (a topic he always followed eagerly).
Jim was predeceased by his parents, Charles F. and Margaret Street; his older brother, Charles F. Street, Jr.; his sister-in-law, Lucia (Abercrombie) Harvilchuck; and his brother-in-law, Paul Abercrombie. He is survived by his wife, Lois Street; his children, Sharon Street and Al Street and their partners; his brother-in-law, David Abercrombie, and David’s wife, Margi; his nephew, Steve Street; his three nieces, Suzanne Street Keck, Karen Abercrombie, and Janet Abercrombie-Cox; and his grandson, Oscar.
An event in Jim’s memory is being planned and will be announced at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to Founders Hall of Ridgefield, where Jim in his later years enjoyed attending a weekly music class, and then, weather permitting, going for a walk with Lois.
