James A. Wethers was a social man, fond of entertaining, close to famous jazz performers and quick to document those relationships with his camera.
He was also dedicated to social improvement, applying his talents to impoverished communities on the South Side and in western Africa.
Mr. Wethers, 64, died Jan. 16 of a heart attack and emphysema in his Hyde Park apartment, his son Hasan said.
By choosing social service as a career, he followed his mother, Mae Wethers, who was a regional supervisor of the Cook County department in charge of public assistance, said Rev. Leon Finney Jr., pastor of the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church. Finney was a friend of Mr. Wethers’ since their student days at Hyde Park High School.
Finney, once the executive director of The Woodlawn Organization, said Wethers joined that group as a community organizer in 1967. “That was sort of like Jimmy’s first foray into the whole area of human services,” Finney said.
Mr. Wethers earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and spent two years at the law school of New York University, dropping out because his mother became ill, his son said.
In 1972, he married Kandi Bryson Soon after, they were sharing a comfortable house in Lagos, Nigeria, where he worked as program adviser for the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, a group that teaches business skills to the poor. They stayed in Africa for six years, returning to Chicago before the birth of their son.
“He talked a lot about the work he did in Africa,” his son said.
“He was really proud of that, putting together training programs for children there.”
Mr. Wethers also worked for agencies such as the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C. As its Midwest coordinator for employment and training, he taught local groups how to train the disadvantaged in job skills and how to find federal funds to help pay for their programs.
“Jimmy believed that the kind of help he gave could be life-altering,” said Othello Poulard, his former supervisor at the Center for Community Change.
“It was not traditional social work or handouts. It was work that helped people get on their feet.”
Mr. Wethers’ most recent job involved raising funds for early childhood programs at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Before his retirement in 2003, he secured money for a playground in the Back of the Yards neighborhood and helped manage an annual children’s run, said Lupe Preston, a division manager at the charity.
Mr. Wethers was a serious photographer, shooting the performances of jazz legends, the heroes of the civil rights movement and Muhammad Ali, his son said.
“Unfortunately, he never had an opportunity to get the publicity he deserved” for his photographs, his son said. “He was always managing multiple jobs and taking care of me and my mother. Never had the time to show the world what his creativity was.”
He is also survived by an aunt, Evangeline Augustus, and cousins, nieces and nephews.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church, 4100 S. King Drive.
