It's hard to know what Jim is best known for, and it's near impossible to pick out the high points of a career that spanned almost five decades on the streets of Belfast.
Everything Jim did he did with a rare enthusiasm. He absolutely believed in what he was doing, it's what makes him a great journalist. At a time when our industry is under attack like never before he remains the embodiment of a honest hack, he not only represented the papers he worked for but he represented all us working journalists.
He set the benchmark very high. From his early days as a cub reporter on the News Letter Jim's destiny was to become the foremost journalist of his generation.
The outbreak of the Troubles meant a lot of a people had to grow up very quickly. Those days left an indelible mark on all of us and its where Jim's sense of duty toward the people of his native city grew and it was a code he stuck to religiously throughout his career.
It is the model on which the Sunday World is built - the People's Paper - Jim's ethos, that we give a voice to a community that may not otherwise have one, has been burned into the paper. I can think of very few people who are as welcome in the republican heartlands as they are in the depths of the Shankill.
There is no such thing as a no-go area for Jim.
There have been countless highs and lows along the way. The numerous death threats against himself and members of his staff. His predecessor Jim Campbell was shot and seriously wounded on the doorstep of his home by the UVF.
Jim was badly beaten in the grounds of the City Hall by a UVF mob. But what hurt him, all of us, the most was the murder of Martin O'Hagan. It remains an open wound, for, despite the Sunday World's best efforts, Marty's killers remain at large.
Jim had to do what no newspaper editor in Northern Ireland had ever faced. He guided the newspaper through the trauma, his care and attention to the O'Hagan family and to his staff was unstinting. It was the mark of the man.
I know he will continue to campaign for justice for Martin.
When the UDA set about threatening newsagents who stocked our paper, Jim's immediate concern was for the welfare of the van drivers, riding shotgun with them as they delivered the papers on a Saturday night.
Above everything else Jim always regarded himself as a humble hack. He rose from the News Letter to become Sports Editor and then Editor of the Sunday News.
As a sports reporter he covered the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, he charted the career of Barry McGuigan and of course every kick of his beloved Ulster.
I remember in 1999, two days before Ulster were due to take on Colomiers in the European Cup final, a gang of drug dealers fire bombed our office. A succession of TV crews arrived to interview Jim who sat in the his blackened office wearing his Ulster scarf.
Every question was greeted by an assessment of Ulster's chances. The message was clear, as Jim would say `We're not bate yet' - nothing was going to stop him getting to that cup final.
It's difficult to think of anyone who has achieved as much in a single career. Throughout all of that time he has done it with integrity, honesty, warmth and no lack of humour.
A gifted man from the streets of Belfast who loved his city, its people and his job.
Good luck Jim we wish you well.
