August 5, 1945 – April 9, 2018
Resident of Soquel
A private committal is planned for Omar James who passed away at Dominican Hospital on April 9, 2018 at the age of 72. Omar was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to parents Stephen Lombard James Jr. and Dorothy Frances Bishop. He and his family relocated to Salinas, California where he grew up and graduated from North Salinas High School in 1963.
Omar served his country in the US Air Force, stationed outside of Saigon during the Vietnam War. He returned from service to pursue a degree in law. In 1975 he graduated form McGeorge School of Law. He practiced law in California for more than 40 years and he loved every minute of it.
In 1996 he teamed up with good friend and fellow attorney Bob Johnson to form their own law practice, Johnson and James. They shared many successful years together and had an enormous amount of fun doing it. Omar enjoyed all of their cases, but his favorite had to be what he lovingly referred to as the “Flood Case”. In 1995 the Pajaro River had broken through its levee and flooded the small town of Pajaro, destroying many homes, farms, and businesses. They agreed to represent hundreds of families who had lost almost everything as a result. It took nearly 10 years, but they were able to obtain compensation and make them whole again. Omar felt he could never do enough for his clients and his tireless efforts on their behalf have left a lasting impression not only upon the town of Pajaro, but upon the entire Santa Cruz community.
Outside of the courtroom his happiest days were spent fly fishing anywhere he could, riding his Harley with friends Gary and Billy, playing the guitar, the piano, singing, dancing, firing up the pizza oven and generally having more fun and laughing louder than anyone has a right to. He wasn’t just the life of the party, he was the party.
These past three years following his stroke were difficult ones, but he fought hard, maintained his sense of humor, and tried to be optimistic about his future. Thank you to the friends who kept visiting or just kept in touch, to his caregivers Devine and Lita, and to Bill and his Saturday morning phone calls. These kind acts meant so much to him and helped to lighten the burden of his recovery.
Shortly before he passed a friend asked what he would put on a bucket list if he had one. He thought about it for a while and with a big grin on his face responded, “Nothing…absolutely nothing…I had one great time and didn’t miss a thing”.
Omar is survived by his best friend and sweetheart, Cindy Allen, his brother Stephen James (Angela), sister Claire Kotowski (Michael), Cindy’s sons Taylor Allen (Lauren), Spencer Allen (Susan), grandson Brody Allen and many cherished friends.
