Jim Secord

Jim Secord fell in love with his wife on their first date. “What a woman she is,” he says. Today, D’Arcy Secord resides in The Wellstead of Rogers, where she is under constant care for Alzheimer’s disease, but during their courtship and beyond, the couple cemented their love while volunteering. “What a great way to spend time together, doing for others,” he says.

It’s no surprise, then, that Jim has put his energies into volunteering for the Alzheimer’s Association of Minnesota and North Dakota. When D’Arcy was diagnosed at the age of fifty-four, he called the association’s help line, looking for support. That call took him from attending support-group meetings to speaking at corporations about his experiences with Alzheimer’s. “It was very profound, very moving,” he says. “People were concerned about their memories. There were dramatic points afterward when people would come and ask questions or tell their stories.”

When the association was without a director, Jim—who was also the president and CEO of Lakewood Publications—volunteered as interim coexecutive director alongside Chuck Denny, a longtime friend whose wife also has Alzheimer’s. “How could I not do it?” he says. “I can’t help people with Alzheimer’s, but the association can do great things for struggling families.”

But that’s not Secord’s most recent volunteer accomplishment. Earlier this year, he helped bring the St. John’s Bible, a priceless work of art written by hand by scribes, to museums for public viewing. As a member of the board of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John’s University, Secord helps preserve monastic medieval writings from around the world—to date, about 32 million pages. “It’s going to last thousands of years and is a gift to anyone who loves beauty and art,” he says of the Bible. “I feel very privileged to be a part of it.”

“I get involved in volunteering to be proactive to a need, to bring understanding,” he says. “We’re searching for new truths. I’ve got great health and passion. I love life, I love people, and I love being in love. I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of volunteer work in the future.”