Jim Dawson's newspaper career spanned 44 years, 35 of them as a sports writer, editor and columnist. He worked for six newspapers and one university, starting as a 17-year-old police reporter and ending as publisher of 10 weekly newspapers. He chronicled many of the famous athletes and coaches of his day in his autobiographical book "Life in the Toy Department and other splendiferous places," published in 2017. He was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease in 2019. "I hadn't written anything except 'Toy Department' for 25 years," he said, "but kidney disease was a wake-up call. I started peritoneal dialysis and discovered that I wasn't quite used up, so began writing short stories and a little poetry. " Jim is 86 years old, He and his wife Barbara live in a senior community in Rocklin, California.
