Remembering Jim Huston

The details are fuzzy, but the first time I remember actually sitting down with Jim Huston was more than 10 years ago when he stopped in Cleveland on his way to … well, I don’t recall because Jim was always on the road.

During that meeting over lunch, two things stood out. He said he was going to start using the word “entrepreneur” more in his columns. He thought just saying landscaper was selling the industry short. He also talked a lot about software and technology and how that was going to change the industry for the better.

Jim loved and respected the industry, and that was very apparent during his trip to Northeast Ohio.

Jim passed away on April 2. As far as I can tell, he started writing for Lawn & Landscape in 2008 and continued up until his death last month. For the past 10 years or so, when I took over managing his column, I could expect an email from Jim. The editor/columnist relationship can become transactional, especially when you’ve been doing this as long as Jim has. I’m disappointed I let it become that way, but happy I knew Jim.

He was known as a numbers guy, usually including an excel document with some financial formula as part of his column that makes an editor’s head hurt. But he understood it, and he knew you would learn to understand it. Lately, his columns shifted from numbers to spotlighting people he thought our readers could learn from.

I guess you shouldn’t be surprised when you hear a 75-year-old man passed away. But when I got the news that Saturday morning, I was shocked. That’s because Jim wasn’t living life like a normal 75-year-old. He was still active and travelling the country, helping landscaping entrepreneurs improve their companies.

It was fun to catch up with some of his closest friends and clients for the story on page 40. We will also have some video interviews about Jim posted to our website. You can hear some more stories about Jim from his celebration of life as well, which will be available for 90 days starting on April 19, 2025. You can view that at bit.ly/hustoncol.

We will miss you, Jim.

— Brian Horn