It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of James (Jim/Jamie) Victor Hanna II, on December 1, 2024, at the age of 61, after a short battle with metastatic melanoma. Jamie was born in Huntington, West Virginia on May 11, 1963, to James V. Hanna and Constance (Michel) Hanna.
Jamie graduated from Huntington High School in 1981, where he served as drum major for the band in his senior year. While attending high school, Jamie worked at Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti house, a position that he later proudly noted enabled him to eat dinner twice – once there and once at home. Jamie developed an interest in architecture in his teens and was accepted to the College of Architecture + Design at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Jamie graduated with his Bachelor of Architecture from UT in 1986, becoming both an intern architect and a proud Tennessee Volunteer.
Jamie began his architecture career in the Atlanta area, gaining the required intern experience to earn his AIA accreditation. In May of 1992 Jamie was hired by what was then Nichols Carter Grant Architects, later becoming NCG Architects. Jamie enjoyed seventeen years of employment with NCG, ten of which were spent as a Member of the Board of Directors. Jamie was the Business Development Principal of the firm, and pursued work throughout the Southeast and the United Arab Emirates. These years were some of Jamie’s happiest, as he pursued his love of the profession with peers he respected and enjoyed. NCG’s primary client base was resorts, which forced Jamie’s departure from the firm with the 2008/2009 recession. Jamie continued his career in the years following with T.Y. Lin International, Gensler, May Architecture and The Preston Partnership, contributing to those firm’s marketing efforts and staff development, as well as gaining multiple professional relationships which he treasured. Jamie’s real passion through these years, however, and one that blossomed in February of this year, was as director of his own firm, Hanna Design Alliance. Jamie pursued and won two significant projects during this time and had also successfully begun the Expert Witness arm of his company, making a consulting visit for a case just eleven days prior to the discovery of tumors in his lungs.
Jamie also told anyone who asked that it was his architecture profession that allowed for the meeting of his wife of 29 and one-half years, Laura Leah Moore. Jamie and Laura met during a project meeting for a Marriott timeshare on Hilton Head Island, where she was the structural engineer. According to each of them, they were both immediately bewitched, but neither thought the other was interested. Luckily the stars aligned, and they were married on May 7th, 1995. Jamie later became a father to sons Auguste Dennett Hanna and Sterling Patrick Hanna, a fact that he proudly shared with everyone he encountered. He was an adoring father and husband and would drop anything on his work plate to offer support to his family.
In addition to loving his family, Jamie adored his dogs. Laura reluctantly permitted their first dog into the family as a puppy at the beginning of their marriage, beginning their tradition of using names vetoed for their children to be bestowed on their pets. Jamie whole-heartedly loved Dakota (Jamie vetoed this for their first son’s name), Sundae (pre-named at rescue), Marshall (Laura vetoed this for their second son’s name) and Molly (pre-named at rescue).
His father predeceased him in death. Jim is survived by his mother, his wife, his two sons, sisters Cynthia Hanna Brown and Susan Hanna Fantom and their spouses (David Brown and Joseph Fantom), his sister-in-law Cynthia Lynn Moore, his brother-in-law and wife, Christopher Richard Moore and Barbara Butler Moore, his mother-in-law Sandra Lee Dennett, nieces and nephews Hanna Fantom, Michel Fantom, Elizabeth Brown, Grace Moore, Emmalynn Moore and Nicola Moore.
“Jamie” or “Jim” was a kind man whose warmth was evident to everyone who met him. He is at peace and will live forever in the hearts of the family that has always loved him.
Services will be held at the Chapel on Sycamore on Sunday, December 15th at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Melanoma Research Foundation.
