James “Jim” Priesmeyer
James (Jim) T Priesmeyer is a retired Builder. During the course of his career he built businesses and buildings. The companies/organizations he helped build include a professional theater company, a stage rigging company and a historic preservation organization. The most recent building projects have been primarily historic restorations, set designs and construction and stage lighting. Now retired his focus is on building stories and helping to build the storytelling community.
From his earliest years Jim has had the great good fortune to follow his Mom’s path as an adventurist traveler. That coupled with his Dad, as an entrepreneur, who reinvented himself many times in order to best provide for his family. That combination has created a storyteller that as one emcee put it “Jim is a jack of all trades with a hat to go with each and every one.”
Jim strives to be a student of history and the people who make it. Jim highlights individuals who have been part of the making of history, frequently without recognizing their own contribution. Jim would rather listen than talk. As he puts it “We are all part of history, big or small. By spending my time listening I’m given an opportunity to later share an experience as an observer, hopefully in a humorous mild mannered way. I also enjoy laughing at my adventures because it gives me endless material.”
Jim grew up in a sleepy relaxed beach town in S. Florida. Delray Beach is now unrecognizable to any native having been gobbled up by rapid growth. He spent more than half of his life in North Carolina, mostly in the rural western mountains. Jim has lived in Eastern. Tenn. for over ten years and is currently serving as the Jonesborough Storytellers Guild president.
