James Daniel Coats, age 51, of Des Peres, MO, passed away of natural causes on January 13, 2021. He was born in Mt. Vernon, IL on January 29, 1969 to Robert Gene and Eleanor Ruth (Johnson) Coats. Jim grew up in Mt. Vernon and was a member of Park Avenue Baptist Church. A class of ’87 graduate of Mt. Vernon Township High School, he would go on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He then pursued a career as a design engineer for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, working for companies such as Ingersoll Rand and Krack, before starting his own business designing and marketing HVAC systems.

An avid reader – referring to books as “brain candy” – Jim loved to delve into the works of an eclectic collection of authors, which spanned from Herman Melville to Hunter S. Thompson. A lover of nature, he frequented Castlewood Park, Lone Elk Park, and multiple others in the region and would occasionally travel to Colorado where his mother grew up in order to hike and spend time in his beloved Rocky Mountains. In a society where people are becoming increasingly socially isolated and atomized, Jim made it a point to get to know all of his neighbors and was described by his next-door neighbor as being friends with everyone on his Des Peres block.

Jim was laid to rest in a small family ceremony at Wolford Cemetery in Clara, MO, on January 14 on land donated by his grandfather and grandmother, Herschel and Fern Coats – land from their farm where Jim spent countless joyful days in his youth.

Jim is survived by his parents; his brother, Mark Coats; his sister, Debbie Coats; his uncle and aunt, Kenny and Mary Jane Coats; his aunt, Susie Hoover; his aunt, Colleen Johnson, and numerous other family members. His parting was entirely too soon and came as a shock to his friends and family. Jim will be profoundly missed by them all.