James Sereno Brett was born at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1929 and died at his home in Santa Barbara in January at the age of 90. He was predeceased by his father and mother, Brig. Gen. and Mrs. Sereno E. Brett (Betty) of Santa Barbara and his older sister, Elizabeth (Betty) Brett Evans of Mariposa, California. His childhood was spent in various army posts where he acquired a keen interest in history, particularly military history. He graduated from West Point and then was sent by the Army to Yale for a master’s degree in Political Science. He served in the Army in the Middle East and Korea and was honorably discharged in 1962.
He taught history and political science at the college level for several years in the San Francisco Bay Area and then in Santa Barbara. Having inherited his historical and military interests from his father, he also inherited from his mother, an iris and orchid breeder, a love for gardening, and he had a knack for grafting fruit trees which led to trees in his back yard bearing a great variety of different fruits. He had far-ranging interests and corresponded with people around the world, contributing to and authoring monographs on subjects as disparate as the Van Allen Belts and electromagnetic fields, pre-historical weather phenomena, human migration patterns, and crop circles. He was able to live at home and spend some time every day in the garden right to the end of his life. He leaves behind his niece, Serena Evans Beeks (Graydon) and nephew, Robert John Evans, Jr. (Carol) who will miss his independent spirit, highly-informative historical perspective, and terrible puns in a variety of languages. Interment at Arlington National Cemetery will be private.
