- Date Of Birth: August 20, 1957
- Date Of Death: September 15, 2016
- State: Connecticut
If you ever met Jim Kagdis, you would remember him. His quick steps, his laser-like focus on you when he was talking to you, the questions he peppered at you to catch up on your life, the camera often slung over his shoulder. The way he lit up when he met his two grandchildren in the final months of his life. But that was what he was fighting for, against ridiculous odds, for two decades. He fought to see his kids graduate from high school and college, to see two married and to be at his daughter’s side when she gave birth to her daughter in Denver. But that was where the battle was lost against the very rare pheochromocytoma that entered his life before his 40th birthday. James Ayoub Kagdis, married for 36 years to his college sweetheart Carol Driscoll, father of Adam, Jenna Lee Fenner and Daniel, Grandfather of James Alan Kagdis and Lillian Scarlett Fenner, lost the good fight on September 15, 2016. He was 59. Raised in Edison, New Jersey, Jim graduated from St. Pius X High School and earned his BA in history from Wagner College, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and of the football team. He earned his Master’s in Communications from Fairfield University and worked for 35 years for Sikorsky, most recently as Manager, Business Development and Strategy. Among his proudest professional accomplishments was his leadership role on the X2 Technology Demonstrator program, a revolutionary design that set unofficial speed records for a helicopter. The technology, which successfully achieved first flight in 2008, received the 2010 Collier Trophy, the year’s top honor in aeronautics and astronautics. He was previously involved in the Comanche program. Jim was named a Knight of the Honorable Order of St.
