James Terry

My maternal grandfather was a Commander in the Navy, and Captain of the USS Maryland on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. My first boating experiences were with him, just prior to his retirement, when I had the honor of visiting him on “his boat” at a time when I was 5 to 7 years old. Reportedly, he liked showing me off to his crew as much as he liked showing the boat and her crew off to me.

At that time, he had an honorary role overseeing the crew and care of the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides”, while he was stationed out of the recruiting office in Boston for a few years. Sadly, he got cancer in that same time frame which cut short his influence as my earliest yet strongest family connection to the sea.

My paternal great grandparents built a summer home on Vinalhaven, circa 1917. Soon afterwards they had a lobster boat built locally for day boating and trips to Rockland and Stonington, the Winnie M. When my grandmother and grandfather took over the Vinalhaven house in the 60’s, they had a second bigger lobster boat built, the Anna W.  She was always my favorite place to be.

If not in Vinalhaven for the summer visiting a multitude of cousins, we were swimming and canoeing on a New Hampshire lake with my mom’s family.

So, thanks to my dad’s family, I grew up on the waters of the Fox Islands Thorofare, learning and running those two Maine made lobster boats, various outboards, rowboats, dories and punts. More rarely, I might even be found in an old North Haven dinghy, thinking of my mom’s father -Old Ironsides- his last command, and just enjoying going slowly.

Fast forward to 1995, when my wife and I chose to slow our life pace a bit by moving away from the Boston area. It was an easy choice to pick Portland Maine (halfway to Vinalhaven) to buy our second house (and have our second child).

Since moving to Maine, I’ve worked in project management, logistics, been a CRM, and a safety officer, and had transportation management roles in support of the building trades.

All the while, I’ve maintained a lifelong, but part-time “career of passion”, as a recording and live mixing engineer and producer, and as a piano technician, musician, composer, and arranger.

For me, joining the service team at DiMillo’s marks the first time I have sought out a passionate interest, over a “career interest” for my primary work activity and, I could not be happier to have finally chosen that path and landed here, down by the sea and part of a great and joyful crew of sailors and sea lovers.

James joined DiMillo’s in 2025.