b'In Memorium:Jim MastersonDec. 1, 1951 - March 7, 2019The MS Focus family lost a beloved memberin March, with the passing of James JohnathanMasterson. Longtime readers of MS Focuswill remember Jim Masterson as a candid,outspoken advocate for people with MS. Jimreachedtheheartsofthousandswithhis Academy, and an IBM engineer in the heightmessage of support and courage as a volunteer of the technology age, Jim was the picture ofpeer counselor and the author of the Men & modern masculinity.At rst, he too felt theMS column that ran in this magazine from need to keep his illness a secret, even from his2002 through 2011. children. But Jim soon came to the realizationAs a young naval ocer in the early 1970s, that true courage meant accepting the helpJim suered strange, intermittent symptoms, he needed to be the best father and husbandbut doctors could nd no cause. Nearly a decade he could be. Doing so wasnt always easy, butwould pass before Jim was nally diagnosed it changed his life for the better, and he wantedwith MS. The year was 1983, an era when there to share that message with others.were no treatments for MS, and it was often Jim began to speak out, first as a peerthought of as a womans disease. While a counselor for MS Focus, answering calls andquarter of those diagnosed with MS were men, emails from people with MS who needed toit wasnt a condition that was often discussed. speak to someone who understood. This wasIn fact, it wasnt considered masculine to particularly meaningful for other men withdiscuss health issues at all. Men were expected MS, who often felt more comfortable sharingto battle their health issues in silence.their concerns one-to-one with Jim than theyAs an athlete, a graduate of the U.S. Navalmsfocusmagazine.org 48'