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It is with deep sadness that we share the news that James “Jim” Oelschlager, the founder of Oak Associates, passed on September 29^th at the age of 81.  A true optimist, Jim’s unwavering spirit shined brightly as he bravely fought Multiple Sclerosis for over 50 years.

Throughout his life, Jim made a significant impact on many lives through his generosity, educational scholarships, the Oak Clinic, The Oelschlager Foundation, and his extensive charitable contributions to Akron Hospitals and Ohio universities.  His service to the community has been recognized by awards such as the Akron Community Foundation’s 2016 Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award, The National MS Society’s Special Achievement Award, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Akron.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Jim attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio before receiving a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Law School.  Rather than pursue a legal career, Jim moved to Akron, Ohio to serve as Assistant Treasurer of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, where he was directly responsible for the management of the company’s pension assets.  After generating impressive returns over 16 years at Firestone, Jim founded Oak Associates in 1985 to provide investment management to additional institutions and high-net worth individuals.  In 1991, the Oak Associates Funds were launched to offer smaller investors access to Jim’s unique investment philosophy.  Often considered a contrarian compared to the new field of modern portfolio theory in the 1970s, Jim never understood allocating any capital into a stock or sector he deemed unattractive.  To this day, Oak Associates continues to follow the concentrated investment principles Jim developed early on at Firestone.

While Jim gained national recognition for his career, his passion for giving back to the community was just as noteworthy.  Jim and Vanita Oelschlager have made significant contributions to Akron and Ohio through their generous philanthropy.  They financed new science buildings at both Denison University and The University of Mount Union.  Rather than adorn these buildings with his surname, Jim humbly opted to promote the name Oak.  Jim and Vanita endowed tenured faculty positions at the University of Akron, as well as donated his collection of native American artifacts to create the Oak Native American Ethnographic Collection at the University of Akron’s Institute for Human Science and Culture.  When asked, the Oelschlager’s frequently backed matching challenge grants campaigns for numerous organizations.

Always appreciative of his success despite his self-confessed mediocre grades, Jim founded The Oelschlager Summer Leadership Institute, a week-long, on-campus experience at the University of Akron for at-risk high school seniors.  The program provides exposure to continuing education opportunities, leadership training and awards scholarships to participants, regardless of GPA. 

Jim and Vanita have been strong supporters of Akron’s regional hospitals.  Over the past three decades, they have donated millions to support varied needs of the institutions, including establishing three charitable funds: the Center for Child Advocacy Endowment Fund, the Adoption Advocacy Center Fund, and the Akron Children’s Hospital Global Health Fund, which provides health care resources to children in disadvantaged locations throughout the world.  The couple also endowed a Summa Health Chair in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and contributed to multiple capital funding campaigns.

Having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1973, Jim was passionate about enabling access to care and research about the disease.  To accomplish this, he founded the non-profit Oak Clinic for Multiple Sclerosis in 2001 with Dr. Tim Carrabine empowered a mission to provide treatment regardless of insurance or a patient’s ability to pay.  The Oak Clinic will live on as Jim’s enduring legacy.  To this day, The Oak Clinic serves as a comprehensive resource for multiple sclerosis patients’ medical care, social services, education, rehabilitation and social enrichment.

Those of us who worked closely with Jim are privy to even more examples of his generosity.  Ever the eternal optimist and capitalist, it was common for Jim to provide seed funding for business ideas to regular individuals, simply because they asked.  While some of those ventures never quite materialized, many did and grew into small businesses that employ dozens of workers.  Jim was willing, and eager, to finance mortgages, pay-off student loans, help with wedding costs, or college tuition.  The depth of his generosity had no bounds.

Over the past week, we have spoken to many clients, former co-workers, and industry colleagues who knew and respected Jim.  The overwhelming common emotion expressed was “I would not be where I am today (insert …financially…professionally…physically) if it were not for Jim Oelschlager.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim’s devoted wife Vanita, who lovingly supported him in all his crazy endeavors and provided tireless aid in the struggle against Multiple Sclerosis, as well as with his children and grandchildren.  We would also like to thank the team of nurses that have provided constant care to Jim. 

Finally, if given the opportunity, all of us at Oak Associates wish we could tell Jim just one more time “Thank You”. 

– The Staff of Oak Associates

Please view the full obituary here