James Cornelius Greenler — Jimmy to everyone who ever knew him — died after a long illness on May 29, 2026. He was 73. A man of small stature and outsized strength, Jimmy spent his life in motion: building roads and bridges, climbing mountains, pulling fish from the lakes he knew by heart, and making anyone he'd just met feel like an old friend.

Born in Boxford, Massachusetts, Jimmy was the youngest of his siblings. He graduated from Masconomet High School in 1971 and attended Bryant McIntosh College. He spent the bulk of his career at SPS New England, where he built roads and bridges — and, along the way, earned a reputation as a man who would take on any labor, any load, and outwork men twice his size. Later, as Parkinson's disease began its long, slow claim on his body, he found his way to Market Basket in Haverhill, where he, among other duties, worked retrieving carts — physically demanding work he took on with characteristic quiet purpose and continued long after most men would have quit.

What Jimmy knew about the natural world was extraordinary and hard to quantify. He could name a bird from its call alone before it appeared through the trees. He knew every track in the mud or snow, every fishing hole along the shoreline, every bait for every fish in every condition. He had climbed all the 4,000-foot peaks in New England — many of them with his brother Michael and their cousin Steve — and walked miles of forest before deer season simply to find the right tree for his stand. He grew his own vegetables. He knew things that most people don't know they don't know.

Jimmy was a storyteller. It was his way of engaging people and sharing his vast knowledge of the outdoors — the birds, the fish, the forest, the garden. The knowledge came sideways, dropped into conversation while you were out on the water or following him up a ridgeline. You'd realize hours later that you'd learned something. That was his way — the same way he had learned, accumulating a lifetime of experience and passing it along as it had arrived: naturally, patiently, without ceremony.

He shared his love of the outdoors with his daughter Erin, who hiked alongside him, and with his extended family, who have gathered every summer for decades for a family hike. The tradition dates to the late 1970s, and Jimmy never missed one.

He loved his Boston sports teams the way any right-thinking New Englander does — the Bruins first, then the Patriots, then the Sox. He loved smelt fishing on Great Bay in the winter and ice fishing around the ponds near home, often with his brothers Mike and Jack — and later sharing that love with his younger cousins and nephews. He was a great conversationalist, easy to talk to, quick with a laugh. He and his wife, Kim, loved meeting new people — at the bars near home, at the snowmobile lodges up in Maine — and wherever they landed, they made friends.

Of all the places Jimmy loved, none compared to the camp on Millinocket Lake in Maine, with its long view of Mount Katahdin and its standing invitation to anyone who wanted to come. The drive was four-plus hours from Haverhill, and Jimmy and Kim made it every chance they got — in summer or winter, it didn't matter. There was snowmobiling through the vast Maine trail system, ice fishing in the cold, and that particular peace that comes from being exactly where you want to be. The camp was small, but the land was wide, and there was always room for a tent, a camper, or company. Jimmy kept a camper up there for guests. The door was always open.

He is survived by his daughter, Erin Greenler; his grandson, Noah; his sisters, Joanne Greenler and Janet Greenler Mierzykowski; his sisters-in-law, Janet Greenler and Susan Greenler; and a large extended family of nieces, nephews, and cousins who loved him.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Kim (Harriman) Greenler, who died on January 4, 2013, and who shared his love of the outdoors, the camp, and the long open road of a life well-lived together. He was also preceded in death by his parents, William Jr. and Rita Greenler, and his brothers, Michael Leo Greenler, William (Jerry) Greenler, Paul Greenler, and John (Jack) Greenler, and his sister, Kathleen (Katie) Greenler.

A Celebration of Life, open to all who knew and loved Jimmy, will be held on Saturday, June 6, at The Black Swan, 258 Andover Street, Georgetown, from 12:00 to 3:00 PM. Friends and family are warmly encouraged to come prepared to share their memories and stories — the more, the better.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations in Jimmy's memory to the Appalachian Mountain Club,  keepers of the trails he loved and the mountains he climbed.