James Maish, a career foreign service officer and descendant of a storied Arizona family, died Thursday at age 89 of pneumonia after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.
Maish was born in Nogales and lived in Tucson as a child before his family moved to Los Angeles. He returned to Tucson in 1978 after spending most of his life abroad at a series of American embassies.
As a foreign service officer, he hosted numerous trade missions to Latin America. He worked in embassies in Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, New Zealand and Brazil, as he and his wife, Gretchen, raised their five children.
"He was a very positive and gentle person. He had a deep appreciation for all people around the world of different cultures," said his son, Jeff Maish.
The Maish family, headed by Maish's great uncle Frederick, once owned the Canoa Ranch, part of which is preserved as open space, wildlife habitat and historic site by Pima County.
People are also reading…
Frederick Maish also owned the Palace Hotel in Downtown Tucson and a resort and bathhouses at Silver Lake, which he created south of Downtown by damming the Santa Cruz River. The resort burned and the dam was washed out in a flood in the late 1800s.
Frederick Maish was mayor of Tucson for two terms from 1888-1892 but is probably most known for his unsuccessful attempt to influence the Territorial Legislature into locating the state insane asylum, and the jobs it represented, in Tucson.
Tucson merchants gave Maish $5,000 and sent him to the territorial capital of Prescott in 1885 to "influence" legislators, according to historian John Bret-Harte in "Tucson: Portrait of a Desert Pueblo."
Maish and the Tucson legislators were denounced when they came home with the booby prize — the University of Arizona. Over time, it came to be seen as the better deal.
In his retirement, Maish enjoyed ballroom dancing and desert gardening and was a member of Elks Lodge No. 385.
His wife, Gretchen (Headley) Maish died in 1983.
He is survived by daughters Melinda Scott, of Deland, Fla., and Elissa and Kristine, of Tucson; sons James, of Tucson, and Jeff, of Woodland Hills, Calif.; and five grandchildren.
Funeral services are pending and are being handled by Hudgel's Swan Funeral Home.
Vacant Tucson stores could transform into new housing
