lit a candle 3h ago97. That's a long run. Thoughts to his son and daughter in law and the twin grandchildren.
Their story
James Leo Nelligan, known as Jim, was an American accountant and public servant who represented Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term, from 1981 to 1983. A Republican from Wilkes-Barre, he spent most of his working life in federal and state government, much…
James Leo Nelligan, known as Jim, was an American accountant and public servant who represented Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term, from 1981 to 1983. A Republican from Wilkes-Barre, he spent most of his working life in federal and state government, much of it examining how public money was spent. He died on 6 October 2026 at Spartanburg Hospital in South Carolina, aged 97.
Nelligan was born in Wilkes-Barre on 14 February 1929, the son of Leo and Mary Nelligan. He graduated from James M. Coughlin High School in 1946 and served in the United States Army during the occupation of Japan after the Second World War. He then studied accounting at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1951.
That same year he joined the staff of what is now the Government Accountability Office in Washington, where he worked until 1967. He went on to serve on the staff of the House Committee on Government Operations, as director of finance and grants management at the Office of Economic Opportunity, and as director of the Office of Property Management at the General Services Administration. From 1975 to 1979 he was operations director for the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
In 1980 he won election to the 97th Congress, returning to the Wyoming Valley seat as its representative. He lost his bid for reelection in 1982. Governor Richard Thornburgh then appointed him Deputy Secretary of Revenue for Pennsylvania, a post he held from 1983 to 1985, and he later served as the governor's representative in Washington. In 1991 he ran for the Luzerne County Board of Commissioners but was not elected.
Nelligan was married twice. His second wife, Jean K. Nelligan, died in 2014 from injuries suffered in a car crash. He lived for many years at Harveys Lake before moving to Moore, South Carolina, near his son's family. His family remembered him for his sense of duty, his faith and his lifelong love of Notre Dame football. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township, after a private funeral.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Times Leader obituary via Legacy.com.
Photos
1James Nelligan, Pocket Congressional Directory, 1981
by People Forever
Didn't know he lived down in South Carolina all this time.