A tireless traveler, he visited customers all over the world who requested advice on fluid-mixing equipment and operations; he used those opportunities to further his mission to establish and maintain bridges of international cooperation for the Reformed Church, for the YMCA, and for chemical engineering societies. He belonged to a Travelers Century Club that had a prerequisite for membership of having visited 100 countries (he visited more than 120). Long before the concept of globalization had much of a following, he was a natural ambassador to other countries and races.

Jim worked for 42 years at the Mixing Equipment Company of Rochester, New York, rising to the rank of vice president and director of research. Then, in 1994, he became founder and president of Oldshue Technologies International. In 2005, he moved to Sarasota, Florida, where he died a few years later after a brief illness.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Betty; three sons, Paul of Portland, Oregon; Richard of Glenview, Illinois; and Robert of Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts; and seven grandchildren. The Illinois Institute of Technology dedicated the Oldshue Unit Operations Laboratory in his memory on April 2008.