Senior Dunsmore dies of heart attack

Wharton senior James Dunsmore, a former star high school athlete, died suddenly December 26 of a heart attack while jogging near his home in suburban St. Louis. He was 21. Dunsmore was actively involved in the Sigma Chi fraternity -- "It was his life," his father said -- and played freshman football at the University. He also took part in the PennWatch campus security program. Dunsmore's parents said Friday that a pathologist's early findings indicate their son's death was caused by a congenital heart defect -- "acute angulation of the left coronary artery" -- that had gone undetected until the sudden exertion of the jog. They said their son, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound athlete who seemed to be in good health throughout his life, apparently died when the artery suddenly constricted, cutting off the flow of blood to his heart and killing him before he hit the ground. "He said he was just going to take a jog," said his father, James Dunsmore Sr. "He said he'd be back in about half an hour. But he didn't come back." A Mass and memorial service will be held this Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Newman Center. Dunsmore's parents and two of his four sisters will fly here for the service. Shocked by the tragedy, friends and family members have struggled to find the right words to describe the person who meant so much to them, delivering impromptu eulogies they never thought they would have to make. They uniformly described Dunsmore as a warm and easygoing person, and emphasized his gentle and funny nature. His father, referring to his son as "Gentle Jim," called him a "very kind person who worked hard and loved to play hard." University graduate and Sigma Chi alumnus J. Cogan called Dunsmore a very funny guy who was "very easy to warm up to." He said while it is common for people to praise those who have died as great people and sprinkle them with superlative descriptions, there could be no exaggeration with Dunsmore. "I can't find any faults with the guy," he said of Dunsmore, who was known to friends as "Jim" or "Jimmy." Wharton senior Scott Brion, one of Dunsmore's Sigma Chi brothers, said his first reaction to the news was to think that it was "some kind of mistake." After learning of the death the day it happened, Brion and about 15 other Sigma Chi brothers went to Missouri to attend the funeral and spend time with the Dunsmore family. At a memorial at Dunsmore's prep school, the St. Louis Country Day School, one brother delivered a eulogy which Dunsmore's mother, Susan Dunsmore, called "incredibly moving." In 1986 and 1987, Dunsmore played offensive and defensive tackle for the Country Day Rams, which won a state football title in 1986. He was an all-district offensive tackle in 1987. He played freshman football at the University, but according to his father, decided not to continue playing after the season. He remained active by playing on intramural teams. "He was in great shape," his father said. Dennis Guilliams, the head of Country Day's upper school, remembered Dunsmore as a "warm, caring, big teddy bear-like person who was very much full of life." "Jimmy was always the kind of guy who, if he did anything wrong, would say, 'Yeah I did it, I'll take my licks,' " he said last week. "That's why I admired him so much, because of his honesty." Guilliams taught Dunsmore in sixth grade and remembers him as a student who was "never satisfied with just a satisfactory grade and always worked to achieve at an exceptional level." Dunsmore continued to excel at Wharton, where he majored in multinational management with an emphasis on Russian studies. He was fluent in Russian, having studied at the University of Moscow for a semester and taken Russian for eight years, his father said. The elder Dunsmore said his son planned to start a business career in Washington, D.C. after graduating in May. Management Professor Franklin Root taught Dunsmore in his "multinational entry strategies" course last semester. He expressed shock at the news of his former student's death, recalling that Dunsmore "seemed to be strong physically." "He seemed to be a very honest student who applied himself and often had something very intelligent to say," Root said Friday. "He also worked very effectively with a team of students on a project for the class." As a third-generation Quaker, Dunsmore was part of a great family tradition at the University. His grandfather graduated in 1921, followed several decades later by his father and four uncles. Both his parents graduated in 1961. The younger Dunsmore was the only one of his 60 cousins to attend the University, his father said. In the days following Dunsmore's death, his parents said there was an outpouring of support and condolences from their community. His father said over 300 cards have arrived to date and there was an overflow crowd at a memorial Mass held in St. Louis on December 30. "There is no greater tragedy than what has happened [to Dunsmore]," Guilliams said. "The only thing others can do to pay tribute is to recognize that they are vulnerable and every day counts. Too often, people think, 'It can't happen to me.' But it can. As someone told me recently, life comes with no promises." Dunsmore's parents have asked that donations in their son's memory be made to the University.