Editor's Note:
This story was updated at 1:40 p.m. with comments from Jim's son, Jeff Gorman.
MANSFIELD — Industrialist and philanthropist James C. “Jim” Gorman, 99, died peacefully Wednesday night at his home.
His son and longtime business associate Jeff Gorman said his father had no regrets.
“I hope the long life is hereditary,” he said. “We all miss him very much already.”
Gorman spent much of his professional career leading Gorman-Rupp Pumps, a company co-founded by his father, J.C. Gorman Sr, and Herbert Rupp in 1933. He was also a World War II U.S. Army Air Corps pilot.
“My parents actually met at the regional airport,” Jeff Gorman said. “It was love at first flight.”
Jim Gorman’s grandmother bought him 10 hours of flying lessons after he graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1941. He was also a founding member of the 164th Fighter Squadron, which became the 179th Airlift Wing stationed at the Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
Gorman’s wife, Marjorie, died in 2015. The couple were both avid aviators, with Marjorie being one of the first 100 women in the world to earn a helicopter pilot license. She was also a past president of the Mansfield Aviation Club.
Jim Gorman donated the building for the Frank P. Lahm Aviation Museum and supported many other community development projects in Richland County.
He and his sister, Jean Bates, donated the land of the Gorman Nature Center to the Richland County Park District in 1975. Gorman also donated 35 acres of land on Ohio 97 to support the future YMCA sports complex.
At the September 2022 announcement of the complex, Gorman said, “We’re trying to pay back the community what it’s given to us.”
A legacy of giving back
Richland County Commissioner Darrell Banks, a former Bellville mayor, said Thursday morning Gorman did a great deal for the Clear Fork Valley.
“The (Ohio) Genealogical Society is on the land that he donated. He donated land for the new YMCA (sports complex) and for the dog park. These are just the things he’s done recently.
“He’s done many more things for the community. Back in the 1950s, he opened up a small factory down there … making pumps … (and it) grew. He was not only such a generous man, but he was a kind and caring person and we will miss him,” Banks said.
Gorman was inducted into the North Central State College Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame in 2004, and later the North Central Ohio Industrial Museum’s Champions of Industry. He also earned the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development’s Chairman’s Award in 1984.
Gorman’s children, Jeff and Gayle Gorman Green, are business leaders of Gorman-Rupp Pumps and Manarico, Inc. in Mansfield. Gorman Green serves as the CEO of Manarico, Inc, an airfield lighting company.
Jeff Gorman said some of his favorite family memories involved aviation.
“Conversations around the dinner table weren’t about sports, they were about planes and what we were flying next,” he said.
“He has a great legacy of giving back to this great community. Richland County was very good to our family, and he was a great advocate for our community’s resources.
“He did everything he wanted to do in his life and left with a smile on his face.”
Wappner Funeral Directors is arranging services for Jim Gorman.
The Gorman family requests memorial donations be made to the Mansfield Aviation Club scholarship fund at the Richland County Foundation in lieu of flowers.