Who's Jim?

Jim Beach spent over forty years in land development consulting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning his career as a landscape architect and serving as a city planning director from 2017 to 2020. He has lived in recovery since 1992. A longtime writer of essays, manifestos, and journal entries that rarely see the light of day, he also designed and maintained websites for nonprofits and small businesses as a hobbyist and freelancer for nearly twenty years. A recreational bicyclist since the late '70s, he competed seriously between 1996 and 2006 in bicycle races, road and trail running races, and triathlons, including two full Ironman-distance races and ultramarathons through national forest lands, across the Grand Canyon, and to the top of Pikes Peak. He is one of the founding members of a three-day cycling festival in Tulsa with an international reach, and he and his wife created a recreational cycling event in northeastern Oklahoma in 1991 that continues to be popular among the regional cycling community. He has served his local A.A. community in nearly every group service role, including chairperson, GSR, treasurer, secretary, and technology committee chair, with additional service at the intergroup, district, and area levels. He and Marie have been married since 1990. These days they wrangle a senior dog and a couple of young cats that are still learning how to be part of the team. What Jim hopes to be remembered for has less to do with his accomplishments than with how he tried to show up: with integrity, in service, and with love treated as a verb. The Gift of the Exile is his first book.