Jim Pinkham
| Jim Pinkham | |
|---|---|
| Birth info | 1928 |
| Deceased | Yes |
| Died on | 2011 |
Jim was one of LRH's first staff members, and a very close friend of Jack Horner. �I became acquainted with him for a period of about 5 years when he was living in San Francisco, starting around 1999 or 2000. �I don't have enough information about him to write a proper obituary, but the writeup below is from my recollections, plus emails and notes from phone conversations. Jim Pinkham 1928 � 2011. Jim Pinkham attended the second Dianetics course held in Elizabeth New Jersey, joined staff and worked under LRH until 1955 when he was, as he put it, "eased out." �(Earlier, in Philadelphia, Helen O'Brien had tried to persuade LRH to fire Pinkham, but Ron told her "I fired him, but he won't leave!"). In 1953 Pinkam went to live in Phoenix to continue working for LRH. �Like Hubbard, he was a motorcycle enthusiast, and they sometimes rode together during this period, sometimes off road at high speed. �Ron told him "You know, Jim, a horse will go almost anywhere a motorcycle will go." Among other duties Jim was responsible for recording many or most of LRH's lectures in the early to mid 50's, and after leaving staff in 1955 he occasionally returned at LRH's request to record more lectures at the congresses, through 1962. Jim claimed that the theme "Accent on Ability" in Dianetics '55 was the result of an all-night discussion he had with Bob Stone. �He said that on the following day they spent several hours explaining their idea to LRH, after which the the book, still in draft form, was substantially rewritten to incorporate it.� Jim also said the content of History of Man (a/k/a What to Audit) was not from from LRH's case nor audited by LRH. He claimed that it came from the sessions of one Nan Webster McCurdy, audited by Bud Eubanks in Wichita in the fall of 1951, and that "Hubbard bought it hook, line and sinker." �He said the sessions were "recorded, transcribed, and embellished." �He also described Ms. McCurdy as "certifiably insane," and characterized "95% of the dissertation on the whole track in What to Audit" as "pure crap." He described LRH as a "very proprietary individual" and thought that Ron had decided "how to get the larger part of humanity under his general control" as early as 1951, and that part of that plan included promoting the concept "Look, Don't Think," which Jim attributed to a lecture given in or around September, 1953. Jim thought that auditing had workability, but he was not a believer in the Scientology "Bridge to Total Freedom." �He referred to it as "the bridge that goes up but not across." He was a lover of jokes and especially puns. �(In "The Missed Missed Withhold" there is a lecture in which LRH laments the number of people who left Scientology before the latest developments, comparing them to dinner guests who leave before dessert is served. �LRH concludes his remarks with something like "I could have said they deserted before dessert, but that sounds too much like Pinkham.")