Obituaries

Sadly, James Ludvigson, of Penticton, passed away on March 14, 2025. He will be greatly missed. He was born January 13, 1944 in Port Alberni, BC. He was married to Lorraine for 26 years, who was the mother of his children. He is survived by his 5 children, Tara, Paul, Peter, Tina and Tami; 10 grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren.
He was very passionate, energetic and a positive force for advocating accessibility for all in our community.
James first gained accessibility awareness while he attended Kitsilano High School in Vancouver, BC. This started a public service life that spanned decades. He also served as Ministry of Provincial Secretary from October 1975 – November 1981 in the areas of education, health, human resources and labour.
He moved to Penticton in June 1997. Here, his desire to make his community more accessible, led him to serve on many committees, both City and Regional.
He served on Airport Committees/Development, Emergency/Services, Transportation, Seniors Advisory Committees and recently, before his passing, he was serving on the Accessibility Committee of Penticton. But it didn’t stop here. He served his community many other ways. He served 3 years on the Neil Squire/Penticton Indian Band – Footprints to Employability program committee. James also played a vital role in the Desert Rose Society (a non-profit society for persons with disabilities) serving on their board. He also promoted the King’s gospel songs on Sunday morning during the Elvis Festival. His civic minded-ness led to him to volunteer at voting stations.
He, along with a visual impaired/blind person, visited local schools to educate young students about the challenges and abilities of persons with disabilities. They challenged the students with thoughts like this: how all of us have disabilities of one sort or another, whether that disability is visible or not. Using humour, they illustrated this with stories of their own life’s experiences. He often spoke of the importance of helping change attitudes in our youth because he understood attitudes are one of the biggest barriers that people with disabilities face.
In 1998 James created his own business, GOYA management, where he specialized in facilitating workshop, event planner, program manager and desktop publishing. In October 2006, he started Joy Design Writings and Event Planning that specialized in creative desktop designing and publishing, calendars, business cards, flyers, etc. event proposals and management – workshop and ‘special events’.
James’s resilience, strength and ability to face challenges led him to achieve positive outcomes despite his many obstacles.
Before his passing, he was working on a new project. The essence of it was to create a non-profit society to honour volunteers in our community. He knew first hand that volunteers deserved more recognition and rewards for all they do.
In remembrance of James, please donate to Penticton Regional Hospital’s Children ward. Also, please become a volunteer and help make your community better, like James did!
To send condolences please visit www.providencefuneralhomes.com.

• Apr 16, 2025
  I was privileged to meet James when We were both starting out on new adventures.Every time We ran into each other We always enjoyed conversations. I felt He was beyond just being a friend He was certainly special. I 'm in the believe He will find His ultimate role in the next life, certainly too good to just disappear. We will meet again James. - John Anthony Turner

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