Living by the motto, Laborare est Orare (to work is to pray), James Otto Ebbeson (Jim), age 92, set his work aside last week and passed away on September 16, 2026.
His final days were made more peaceful by staff at Bay View Senior Care, Unity Hospice, family and friends.
Fleet of body and mind, Jim lived in perpetual motion. Ever-purposeful and curious, Jim spent his life advocating, repairing, competing, making pancakes, bartering, cleaning, painting, giving and caretaking, defending and protecting until his final days. His life was rich in ideas, books, music, multiple-simultaneous projects and family concerns.
Intimates knew his carefree, loving, even zany side. Colleagues and associates knew his rhetorical facility with correspondence and advocacy. His beloved wife Karen and his family are proud of him and deeply saddened to share these words with affection and love.
Jim was born on February 9, 1934 at the Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He was the youngest of five, the only son, and the third child born to Clarence and Mildred (Goodwin) Ebbeson. In a bureaucratic blunder still echoing today, his hospital birth certificate stated that he was born one month earlier than his mere-moments-older twin, Joanne.
His mother Mildred worked outside the home as a saleswoman and father Clarence did itinerant work, including driving for Bernie Brothers Bakery, Local 734 in Chicago. Jim grew up on the border of the Ravenswood and Andersonville neighborhoods in north Chicago, attending the Ravenswood School. An independent child, Jim spent a great deal of time with his two eldest sisters already in their teens, as his parents were working. Jim graduated from Amundsen High School in 1951.
An avid sports fan and natural athlete, Jim often walked the 45 minutes to Wrigley Field, eventually (and perhaps apocryphally) trying out for the Cubs. Somewhere along the way, he learned to skate, to play basketball, tennis, handball, cycling and to swim competitively. He had a very mean fastball and a lovely golf swing. Karen introduced him to sailing and skiing and they enjoyed many such trips together in the U.S. and Europe.
Jim’s passion was running. In the late 1960s–before distance running was something many amateurs did–Jim could be seen running alone far into the countryside around Door County, carrying a short length of rebar-baton to keep the farm dogs at bay. He participated in a running club in Green Bay and fostered regional interest in running. When Runner’s World was first published, he immediately subscribed and became part of a growing community of runners that helped drive the marketplace for shoes, marathons and community runs. He took great pride in his Boston Marathon qualification and finish time in 1970.
Jim was a man of letters, the first of his family to attend university. He spent a year studying at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and worked to offset his education expenses. In 1953, Jim joined the Navy and served on a destroyer through the end of Korean Action and beyond, exploring parts of Japan while on liberty. He completed some distance learning while serving in the Naval Reserve and matriculated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated in 1958. He then moved back to Chicago where he received his law degree from DePaul University in 1963. During law school he worked for Continental National Insurance in Chicago, commuting from Hoffman Estates.
Visits to relatives and the natural beauty of Door County drew Jim and his young family to Sturgeon Bay in 1963. There, he closed on a waterfront home and reached an agreement with attorney Herman Leasum to start work with him over the course of that summer. From about 1965 onwards, Jim ran a solo law practice, first out of the historic Larson & Co Store building on Third Avenue, remodelling and caring for the building, which is now on the National Historic Registry. A small-town law practice places unique requirements on an attorney. Unable to specialize in any one aspect of the law, like one might in a firm, Jim needed to develop broad expertise. As a corporate lawyer, he represented and even helped found some of the most notable names in Sturgeon Bay maritime and banking history. Pleading before Judges in Door, Kewaunee and Manitowoc Counties and as far as Milwaukee and Dane, Jim represented civil and criminal clients at trial.
A senior mentor from Milwaukee submitted Jim’s name to the US Supreme Court, where he was admitted to the bar in a memorable ceremony. Real Estate Law was another large share of Jim’s work. Prior to the establishment of separate Title Insurance companies, attorneys needed to close all real estate deals; researching chain of ownership, representing banks and clients. The Ebbeson law practice was ably supported by a number of assistants and occasional associates, towards whom Jim was very grateful and proud. Family law eventually came to comprise another large share of the practice, especially once no-fault divorce became the de facto standard in Wisconsin in 1978.
Through her own work for families as a social worker, Karen first encountered Jim by way of their work together in family law and advocacy. They would later work to establish and serve on the board of HELP of Door County, the phone line for anyone in Door County seeking assistance, counseling and shelter from abuse or family problems. Resolved to defend the underdog, Jim believed that justice exists to help protect the minority from the majority; to serve victims and the weak, as well as the powerful and connected—blind to influence or stature. In his law practice, as in his community work, Jim didn’t shrink from fighting for his side. He chose to represent individuals taking on the police department or other powerful entities. Another attorney might have referred these cases to other firms outside of the small town where he’d need to live, run a business and maintain a home and family. Anyone who knew Jim wouldn’t have been confused about his views, nor the understanding that he’d want to see something through once it was started.
One of his heroes was fictional Atticus Finch (the attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird), and some of his children referred to him as Don Quixote. Jim often took payment by way of work-for-trade, food, or furniture. He served many clients pro bono, or as a referred public defender; he also helped form Legal Aid of Door County. As a landlord of multiple office buildings in town, he extended leases to counseling services and other community groups. And, in an act of arguably daring public service for a largely conservative small town, he rented space to Planned Parenthood and put a sign for them on his building near the Steel Bridge—showing his commitment to fair access to medical and routine healthcare for women and families.
Community Service was profoundly important to both Jim and Karen. To touch upon just a few key contributions: Jim was instrumental in helping found Sunshine House (now Sunshine Resources), HELP of Door County, and Door Concerts, Inc. He served on numerous boards and volunteered for Hope United Church of Christ, as well as the Methodist church in Sturgeon Bay, the League of Women Voters and many other organizations. As counsel, he helped establish many non-profit organizations, including many of the Friends of State Parks and Nature conservancies in and around Door County. He was a longtime member of the ACLU, and took time away from his practice to work for them in Chicago. Along with judges and regional attorneys from around the country, he served on a commission appointed by President Carter in the late 1970s. He provided early counsel to the founders of Birch Creek.
In their private sphere, Jim and Karen created a home filled with beauty that friends and family loved to visit. They welcomed many to enjoy sumptuous meals and to sit and admire the nature and water views they loved so well. Their frequent travel abroad brought them in contact with design and architectural influences which they poured into places their grandchildren refer to as “magical”. Dog lovers, they and extended family relished the connection to numerous pets past and present.
Jim is survived by his beloved wife of 47 years, Karen Ebbeson. Together they shared a large blended family, including seven surviving children: Christy Ebbeson Kurtz (Jon) Kurtz of Centerville, Ohio; Terry (John) Seidl of McFarland, Wisconsin; Shelly (Gene) Bowerman of Adams, Wisconsin; Frida Kumar of Kirkland, Washington; Erika Ebbeson of Egg Harbor, Wisconsin; Kim (Tim) Knaup of Madison, Wisconsin; and Jeffrey Ebbeson. Karen’s eldest son Rod Wedel pre-deceased Jim in 2020. Jim loved his ten surviving grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
A Memorial Service honoring Jim will be held at 1pm on October 10, 2026 at the Hope United Church of Christ. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to one of the causes Jim championed: HELP of Door County( https://helpofdoorcounty.org/), Habitat for Humanity, (https://www.doorhabitat.org/), Door County Legal Aid ( https://www.dclegalaid.org/), the Hope United Church of Christ, or the United Methodist Church of Sturgeon Bay.
We would like to thank the Unity hospice care team that helped him through his final days and the team at BayView Senior Care.
We would especially like to thank his daughter Erika who moved back to Sturgeon Bay in 2025 to assist with his final move to BayView, providing loyal companionship to the very end.
Forbes Funeral Home in Sturgeon Bay is assisting the family. Expressions of sympathy, memories, and photos of Jim may be shared with his family through this tribute page.
