James Hinton

James (Jim) O. Hinton Jr, 87, of Grove City, Ohio passed away peacefully on Wednesday April 16, 2025 with his wife Joann, and sons Mike & Tony with him. A private service for immediate family only will be held.

Jim was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up helping his parents run their small motel in Jacksonboro, SC. As he grew up there, he started learning and working on cars that quickly became his passion. He took that interest in mechanical work and joined the Air Force at 17 years old to become an Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic specializing on Bomber Maintenance & Repair. He started his job in the early years of the jet age working on Boeing B-47 Stratojet Bombers, quickly graduating to work on the B-52 Stratofortress (still a workhorse plane today for the Air Force). He spent 21 years in the Air Force climbing to the rank of Senior Master Sargent as a Chief Maintenance Specialist on the B-52. During his time in the service, he spent time in Germany, Thailand & Guam during the Viet Nam War. When he was back stateside, he was stationed in Alaska, Montana, and Georgia before finally being transferred to Lockbourne Air Force Base (now Rickenbacker Airfield) in the mid 60’s where he settled into his home in Grove City, Ohio with his loving wife Joann and sons Mike & Tony.

After 22 years in the service, he retired to start work as a Maintenance Mechanic for the US Postal service at the main hub in Columbus, Ohio. 16 years later he retired from the Post Office at the ripe old age of 55 to continue his work on his cars. A short list of some of the muscle cars he had were a 65 Ford Galaxy 500, 66 Ford Mustang Fastback, 67 Pontiac GTO, 70 Plymouth 340 Duster, 85 Ford Mustang GT 5.0, and an 86 Chevy Corvette. While he always had a new family car in the driveway, he loved his muscle cars and driving fast.

He is survived by his loving wife Joann of more than 66 years of marriage. Also survived by his boys, Mike (Kathy) with granddaughters Erica & Brittany, and great grandchildren Liam, Maly, Elowen, and Kai. Tony (Sandy) with grandsons Andy & Joey.

Dads last thoughts and words were that he was a simple man living a simple live, and hoped he made a difference in the lives of people he knew.