James Hughes Tinsley, 90, a retired Marine Corps Colonel and business executive, died December 26, 2002 in Sun City, Arizona. Colonel Tinsley served on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps for 24 years. He fought in World War II, and again in the Korean War during 1951-1952. Colonel Tinsley was born in Ashland, Kentucky in 1912. He grad-uated from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina in 1933. After working for the Tennessee Valley Authority as a civil engineer and serving in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Reserve, he began active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1940. Colonel Tinsley served as operations officer for the 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division during the campaigns in the South Pacific for the capture of Bougainville in 1943 and Guam in 1944. In 1945 he was commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines effecting the surrender of the Japanese naval base at Chi Chi Jima. Colonel Tinsley assumed command of the 9th Marine Regiment in late 1945 in the Pacific until it was disbanded at Camp Pendleton, California on December 24, 1945. In the Korean War Colonel Tinsley was the 1st Marine Division Intelligence Officer (G-2). Other assignments included Executive Officer, Recruit Training Regiment at San Diego, California; Commanding Officer, Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton; Fleet Marine Officer, 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea; Detail Officer in the Personnel Department at Headquarters Marine Corps; and four years as Chief of Staff, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. He was a graduate of the Amphibious Warfare Senior Course and the NATO Defense College in Paris. His decorations included two Legion of Merits with Combat ‘V’ and the Bronze Star Medal with Combat ‘V’. Upon retirement from the Marine Corps in 1964 he joined The Warner & Swasey Company in Cleveland, Ohio as its first Director of Public Affairs. Concurrently, he was an Ohio Chamber of Commerce director and chairman of its Social Legis-lation Committee. He retired from Warner & Swasey in 1975 and moved to Sun City, Ariz-ona. He was an active member of St. Clement of Rome Cath-olic Church in Sun City. Sur-vivors include his wife of 17 years, Kathryn M. Tinsley of Sun City, Arizona; two children, Colonel James Hager (Tim) Tinsley of Vienna, Virginia and Mary M. Booth of Asheville, North Carolina; eight grandchildren; and thirteen great-grandchildren. A son, John Michael Tinsley, died in 1993. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery. Visitation will be 3-5 PM with Rosary at 5:00 PM, Monday, Menke Funeral Home, 12420 N. 103rd Ave., Sun City. Funeral Mass 10:00 AM, Tuesday, at St. Clement of Rome Catholic Church, 15800 Del Webb Blvd., Sun City, AZ.
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