Jim Pitts died on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at UVa Medical Center.

He is survived by his wife, Pat; his sons and their partners, Taylor and Stephanie and Zachary and Cassie; his mother, Cora; his brothers, Geoff and John; his sisters-in-law, Judi, Jeanette, Laura and Nancy; by a loving and close-knit group of nieces, nephews, their children, many 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins, and other assorted relatives. He is also survived by his life-long best friend, Michael Sandell.

James Colvin Pitts was born in Charlottesville, on February 20, 1956. He attended public schools where, at age 14, he fell in love with Patricia Buehler and never got over it. In 1976, he gave up a promising academic career at Virginia Tech to become a founder of Ace Contracting, Inc., a building and remodeling company that he guided and loved with his brothers for forty-five years.

He was a strong, skilled athlete who excelled at track, skiing, volley ball, skydiving and especially angling—freshwater, surf, offshore—spinning or fly fishing. He was also an avid sports fan, especially of his beloved UVa Basketball team. His infectious, loud, boisterous enthusiasm frequently got our entire family on its feet, joining him in clapping and yelling. He attended the ACC Tournament whenever he could and had the great pleasure of being present when his team won the NCAA Championship in 2019.

Jim was a Boy Scout and later a Scout leader. He was accomplished in the kitchen where his signature dish was Grits Soufflé. His father taught Jim and his brother John a passion for all things avian and the two of them would frequently drag their oldest brother, kicking and screaming, on birding expeditions which all three loved. Jim's mother is a wild flower expert and a wild flower thief and she and Jim loved to go on expeditions to steal specimens from forbidden property. Jim helped organize and regularly attended his Albemarle High School reunions where he delighted in visiting with old friends.

He grew to become a remarkably accomplished and experienced builder who supervised and constructed a wide array of projects all over Charlottesville and Albemarle. At Ace Contracting he mentored many dozens of young carpenters and helped hundreds of clients realize their building dreams. His expertise, conscientious care, warmth and great sense of humor quickly converted most of his clients to friends. Occasionally, during an initial site meeting, he was known to ask potential customers "Are you rich?" Anyone who didn't laugh at this ridiculously inappropriate question was not worthy of Jim. He gave the same care and attention to a simple bathroom remodel that he did to his larger and much more demanding projects.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Pat, in 1978, and they had two sons. Although hard to imagine, his family was even more important to him than UVa Basketball—nothing took precedence over his love and care for his wife and their boys. He taught Taylor to be a chef and Zach to be a carpenter and he instilled in both of them a love of the natural world that came directly from his own father. His boys (and his entire extended family) thought of Jim as the person who could take care of anything, fix anything or figure out anything.

His sincerity, warmth, emotional involvement and outstanding sense of humor were a gift to everyone he ever encountered. It's impossible to imagine a world without him.

A memorial service for Jim will be held at some point, hopefully when the pandemic subsides. Anyone interested in being notified about this can go to tinyurl.com/jimmy-baby-bird and sign up. In the meantime, and in lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to any of the following, AHIP, Shenandoah National Park, Coastal Virginia Wildlife, Observatory, Pea Island Wildlife Refuge, PACEM,The Nature Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity, or Building Goodness Foundation.

Submitted by Sam Clarke.