James T. “Jim” Laney was the kind of person who left people and institutions better for having known him.

At the Henry Luce Foundation, where he served on the Board for more than two decades, Jim’s warmth, curiosity, and encouragement became a defining part of our community. His legacy lives on in the work he inspired, and even more in the people whose lives he touched so deeply.

Jim died on August 13 at the age of 98.

He joined the Luce Foundation’s Board in 1990, bringing with him the perspective of a scholar, ordained United Methodist minister, and former president of Emory University. His remarkable career would also include service as US ambassador to South Korea. Board Co-Chairs Debra Knopman and Terry Adamson described his contribution as “transformational” and Jim himself as “a muse to many of us.”

Jim’s influence runs through the Foundation’s work. He first proposed the idea that became the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, which for sixteen years supported a deeper understanding of religion’s role in international affairs.

His influence was, above all, deeply personal.

Chair Emeritus Margaret Boles Fitzgerald described Jim as more than a fellow board member. Throughout their years together on the Foundation’s Board, Jim became, in her words, her “mentor, colleague, friend, father figure, inspiration, faith counselor.”

Jim retired from active service on the Luce Board at the end of 2013, but he never stopped caring for the Foundation and its people. Only weeks before his death, he spoke with Board Co-Chair Terry about the Foundation’s June Board meeting. Jim had read the board book and, Terry remembers, was “alert, wise, and funny”—as ever.

Luce Foundation President Jonathan Holloway reflected: “Jim’s presence improved the landscape around him for higher education, for private philanthropy, but most powerfully, for people. I know that the Luce Foundation is a better place for having the benefit of Jim’s wisdom and vision for so long.”

We remember Jim with deep gratitude—for his wisdom and vision, and for the warmth, generosity, and encouragement that defined his life and legacy.