IN MEMORIAM, Santa Barbara Independent,
https://www.independent.com/2017/12/07/memoriam-james-gilmore-mills-1926-2017/

OBITUARY - Noozhawk, Santa Barbara News,
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/james_gilmore_mills_1926_2017

OBITUARY - Santa Barbara News Press,
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newspress/name/james-mills-obituary?id=7382795

Pearl Chase Historic Preservation Award 1995
https://www.sbthp.org/award-winners

Wilderness Legacy Award 2009, First year of award by Los Padres ForestWatch, Santa Barbara

https://lpfw.org/our-region/wilderness-legacy-award/
A Sense of Santa Barbara By James G Mills, A family history while living in Santa Barbara, California

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ph3uAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=james+gilmore+mills+santa+barbara+california&source=bl&ots=vpVJdASmRA&sig=ACfU3U3NcLHA5ZKNTEXsfO2T-Ni5JVYgzQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBppPTntr2AhXxKX0KHY6mB00Q6AF6BAgUEAM#v=onepage&q=james%20gilmore%20mills%20santa%20barbara%20california&f=false

Ancestry.com -
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/28401189/person/12038512076/story

James Gilmore Mills, Pharm.D., passed away on August 12, 2017 at the age of 91. Born in May 1926 in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA to Alexander Mills and Mary (Minnie) Rutledge Mills, he came to Santa Barbara as a toddler with his family in March of 1930.
With a life-long interest in the outdoors, wildlife and hiking over our county's back-country wilderness, and due to the WWII shortage of men, he started as a fireman in 1942 at age 16 with the Santa Barbara County Forestry Dept. That was followed by two fire seasons with the U.S. Forest Service where he was promoted at age 18 to the position of fire camp foreman at the San Marcos Pass Station in 1944, helping to protect those lands he loved.
Graduating from SBHS in 1943, and while waiting to be old enough for active duty, he completed a year at Santa Barbara State College, its last year before becoming UCSB. Then on active duty as an Aviation Cadet in the Air Corps he completed B-29 training the same week as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. With WWII ending, he never saw combat.
After the War and a stint of logging in Washington and Oregon, drilling gas wells in Kansas and oil wells in California, he joined the Santa Barbara Fire Dept. from 1950 to 1954, during which time he met the love of his life, Alice de la Vega, whom he married on July 26, 1953 and had two children.
Simultaneously while a fireman, he graduated as a science major from Santa Barbara Junior College. Moving to the Los Angeles Fire Dept. in 1954, he attended USC and earned a Doctorate in Pharmacy in 1959. Still on the LAFD two years later, juggling both careers, he finally returned to Santa Barbara with his family, where he was a pharmacist at Brown's Pharmacy in San Roque, and later for Thrifty Drug. Remaining a fireman at heart, he maintained his L.A. and S.B. Fire Dept. ties until his death.
Throughout his 35 years as a pharmacist, he also pursued his outdoor interests, supporting wilderness and parks preservation efforts. He was a co-recipient of the first Wilderness Legacy Award of Los Padres Forest Watch for work in achieving Congressional passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 that led to the establishment of our local San Rafael Wilderness, the first under that Act. Later, he worked to achieve the adjacent Dick Smith Wilderness, as well as the Channel Islands National Park, both enacted into law by Congress. Subsequently he was given the Santa Barbara County Trails Council's Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1980 he joined the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation as a member of its Board of Directors, chairing its Restoration/Reconstruction Committee for a quarter of a century in recreating the City of Santa Barbara's birthplace, the late 1700s Presidio. It was completed as El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park. On his receiving its Pearl Chase Historic Preservation and Conservation Award, after having served three terms as its President, he also was designated a Life Honorary Director on his retirement from that Board in 2006.
As a founding Board member of Vistas Lifelong Learning he led its courses on The Chemistry of DNA, Endangered Species and others. He also served as president of the Santa Barbara Chapter of the National Audubon Society. Countless former school children might remember his presentations on the California Grey Whale, as he would impart his excitement in their annual migration by the SB coast. In his retirement he authored A Sense of Santa Barbara, an Autobiographical Perspective, with great interest in family genealogy.
As much passion as he had in his interests, his love for his family was always his greatest, passing on his love for the outdoors, wildlife, science and history to them in thought and action. Family vacations were always filled with history and learning opportunities, or pure appreciation and respect for nature. He was never without some bit of history or wisdom to share and took every opportunity to educate his family, as well as anyone else who would listen.
He was predeceased by his wife of 63 years, Alice M. Mills.
A memorial celebrating his life will be held at El Presidio de Santa Barbara Chapel, 123 East Canon Perdido St, Aug 26th.