James was the youngest surviving child of Charles Frye, who was the son or grandson of Adam Fry; they originally came down from farming somewhere south of Ottowa to cross the St. Lawrence to Gouverneur, NY.(and Charles added the "e"). Elizabeth Frye Lockwood was his older sister; her only child was Janet Lockwood, a physical therapist who established a Cerebral Palsy clinic in Newburgh, NY area. He had an older brother (Raymond?), and the first child of Charles and his wife was a baby named Grace who died as an infant when their carriage was washed off a bridge in a flash flood--unknown if they were in the Governeur area then or not.
James chose not to farm and won a scholarship to Cornell University, where he studied chemical engineering. His entire fraternity joined up when the US entered WWI; they were guaranteed their return to Cornell at the end of the War. He joined the Navy and was assigned to the fairly new radio training at Vallejo, California. He returned to Cornell and just after graduation married fellow student Marian Gibbs. He worked for Sun Oil, setting up petroleum cracking stations around the Southwest, eventually returning to Central NY, where his only child, son James jr., was born in 1927.
James chose not to farm and won a scholarship to Cornell University, where he studied chemical engineering. His entire fraternity joined up when the US entered WWI; they were guaranteed their return to Cornell at the end of the War. He joined the Navy and was assigned to the fairly new radio training at Vallejo, California. He returned to Cornell and just after graduation married fellow student Marian Gibbs. He worked for Sun Oil, setting up petroleum cracking stations around the Southwest, eventually returning to Central NY, where his only child, son James jr., was born in 1927.