George James Philip Wirthman (Jim Wirthman) was born June 6, 1944 (yes, that was D-Day) in Oakland, CA. He was the youngest of three children, with a brother Phillip and sister Nancy. He grew up in Albany and Walnut Creek, CA and graduated from Los Lomas High School in 1962. He then attended college for a year at St. Edwards University in Austin, TX before transferring to Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. He graduated from there with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in May of 1966.
After graduation, Jim went to work for United Air Lines in their maintenance base at San Francisco International Airport. Jim was a Flight Controls Engineer for 12 years, working on 720s initially followed later by 737s. In this role he handled problems as they arose in that area and worked to implement fleet improvements to improve reliability and maintainability. He also did support work for landing gear and structures. He then moved into management and became the Manager of Avionics. In 1979 he went to work for Air California as the Director of Maintenance and was there for two years. In 1981 he went to work for Hawaiian Airlines as the Director of Engineering and was there for two years as well. He then returned to United Air Lines in 1983 as Manager of a Maintenance Control Center. He was there for four years before becoming a Manager of Line Maintenance. He also worked to improve pilot maintenance logs as a side project. He remained at United Air Lines until his retirement in 2001. Following retirement, he opened his own business as a handyman, titled ‘Jim the Toolman’. He operated that business until 2014 when he fully retired.
Jim married Olivia Menino in Aug of 1967 and had three children: David, Lisa and Debra. He was married to Olivia for 47 years until their divorce in 2014. He married Karen Chorley in 2016 and they are currently married. He has five grandchildren: Tyler, Dylan, Emily, Megan and Gabriel.