James Robert “Jim” McElligott of Ione passed away on July 24, 2026 at home surrounded by family at the age of 76.
Jim was born on Jan. 1, 1950 in Portland the second oldest of 12 children to Dick and Loa Beauchamp McElligott.
After graduating from high school in Ione, he attended college at St. Louis University in Missouri and later transferred to Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont., where the skiing was much better. He graduated from MSU with a degree in civil engineering and a healthy appreciation for the slopes.
He met and married his wife Eileen in 1980, and shortly thereafter they moved to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska where he worked as an engineer for seven years. In 1988, he and his family moved back to Ione to take over his family’s farm where he worked up until he became ill this year.
Jim loved cycling, skiing, beer brewing, Bollywood movies, and flying, as well as numerous other hobbies as they came to him. For a number of years, he rode in Cycle Oregon with his family and friends and looked forward to touring Oregon by bicycle every fall. He was an eternal tinkerer, proposing engineering solutions and DIY fixes to everyday problems.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Eileen; his three children and their spouses, Miranda (Jake), Colin (Stephanie) and Taylor (Michelle); four grandchildren, Aimeric, Wren, Theo, and Candor; 11 siblings, John, Tom (Laura), Joe (Jeri), Ann (David), Melissa (Jeff), Mary Pat (Will), Charlie (Tina), Kate (Charlie), Danny (Patty), Martha (Scott), and Dick (Heidi); and innumerable cousins and nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Dick and Loa McElligott and his in-laws, Bob and Win Williams.
We would like to thank the phenomenal care provided by his sisters, as well as Ashley Medina, Jakota Grossman, Jess Medina, Natalie Driscoll, and Zach Tevault. You all are exceptional and we are so grateful you were there for him.
We are also forever grateful for the wonderful care that Morrow County Home Health and Hospice provided Jim.
Jim was not big on formalities (and would have probably rolled his eyes at this obituary—sorry Dad). If you want to do something to remember him, go on a bike ride or watch a Bollywood movie today. He would appreciate this.
There will be a celebration of life at the ranch after a funeral mass at St. William in Ione at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1. Please come and celebrate with us for a life well lived and well loved.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Morrow County Home Health and Hospice.
Please leave your condolence messages for the family at https://www.sweeneypaytonmortuary.com/.
Sweeney Payton Mortuary has been entrusted with the arrangements.
