James Edmund "Jim" Lupton

James Edmond "Jim" Lupton, 78, of Winnabow, North Carolina, passed away in the early morning hours of July 11, 2026, at Duke North Hospital in Raleigh, following several months in the hospital and at a nearby skilled nursing facility. Jim was a fighter for most of his life. He beat cancer, but the radiation that saved him left his bones weakened, leading to a hip replacement and, over the following decade, a long series of infections, surgeries, and ultimately an amputation in 2025. He faced every bit of it the way he faced everything else: by worrying more about the people around him than himself. Even through years of hospital stays, surgeries, and setbacks that would have worn down most, Jim met very visitor and doctor with a smile and a thanked them for their visit. On the days he had the energy, he'd have a snarky joke ready before you'd even sat down, still trying to make people laugh from a hospital bed. That was Jim. Selfless to the end, more concerned with your day than his own pain. Jim was born August 17, 1947, in Lowland, North Carolina, the youngest of four children of Howard and Gertrude Lupton. Growing up on the coast, he worked in his father's store, in the tobacco fields, and on the family's shrimping boat, and he saved enough from that work to buy himself a bicycle in New Bern. Some of his happiest memories were of July 4th on the water with his family and siblings, waterskiing behind their small boat until they nearly ran out of gas. As a boy he dreamed of becoming a pilot, watching planes glide overhead toward, in his words, "some exciting place beyond the horizon." He met the love of his life, Susie, in Greenville, North Carolina, through mutual friends at East Carolina University. He noticed immediately how intelligent and beautiful she was, and the two became fast friends before falling in love. They married March 20, 1970, in Hickory, North Carolina, beginning a marriage and partnership that lasted 56 years. When asked what moment of his life he'd most want to relive, Jim didn't hesitate: the moment he met Susie. Jim spent his life as an educator, teaching math at Eastern Guilford High School and Western Guilford High School, and later serving as assistant principal at Guilford Middle School, Western Guilford High School, and West Brunswick County High School. He loved working with students of every age and said what he valued most was the exchange with them, the questions, the back and forth, the chance to keep learning alongside the people he taught. Jim measured his legacy simply: love of family, a desire to see them succeed, love of his church, and treating every person with dignity and respect. For his grandchildren, his hope was that they would always feel loved, secure, and valued, while growing into resilient people with purpose, who never stopped learning and who held onto their relationships with family and friends. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Susie Lupton; his daughter Jenny (Kyle) and their children, Breanna and Austin; his son Brad; his siblings, Julia and Roy; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Gertrude Lupton, and his sister, Polly. At home, Jim was kept company by his cats, Max and, more recently, Bailey, and by a sense of humor that never left him, from throwing corn on neighbors' roofs as a mischievous boy to the hand-stitched sign on his wall reading "You are about to exceed the limits of my medication." Even on his hardest days in the hospital, he'd find a joke worth telling. In December 2024, Jim posted a message to old friends that, looking back, reads like a summary of how he lived: "In all my years on this earth, I have learned that dying is inevitable. No one can stop it. We have one life to live. The material things we invest in are left behind. Memories, therefore, are important to me." He asked everyone reading it to share how they'd met and pass it along, and friends from every chapter of his life answered. That was Jim's real legacy, not the things he owned, but the people he kept close and the memories he made sure mattered. A memorial service will be held at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, 1401 South College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403, on August 7 at 1:00 p.m. Jim will be cremated this week, preceded by a private family viewing. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to WMUMC Endowment Missions at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, or to the United Methodist Foundation of North Carolina's endowments: https://umfnc.org/how-we-serve/endowments/

James Edmund "Jim" Lupton

August 17, 1947 - July 11, 2026