James P. Laskin

Jim passed away in his sleep on May 17, 2025 at the age of 69, in Albuquerque, NM, 10 months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was born and raised in Bayside, a suburb of Milwaukee. He received his high school diploma from Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, NH and his bachelor’s degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Jim led a rich, varied, and joyous life. Following college, he learned how to run a bread bakery while living in a communal village in Yorkshire, England for two years. When he returned to the U.S., he applied his baking skills to start the first of three businesses: Upper Crust, Ltd., a Starbucks-like bakery café in Minneapolis before anyone had heard of Starbucks. He subsequently founded J.P. Laskin Co. in Stillwater, MN, where he sold traditionally-made American goods (Navajo rugs, Amish furniture, small-factory glassware), and The Café, a small eatery housed in a 1920s-vintage former gas station in Glenwood City, WI that became a popular local meeting place, exactly what he hoped it would be. He loved the supplier and customer relationships each of his businesses made possible.

The Café was just a few miles down the road from Jim’s beloved farm, where he lived for 35 years in an old farmhouse and raised all manner of farm animals, including his adored 800+ pound pig, Mavis. He loved walking the rustic road in his bucolic valley with a favorite dog or two at his side and getting to know his neighbors. He never tired of their tales of what life had been like there in decades past or of their take on current local or national events. He spent his last years in Tularosa, NM, forging similar friendships with his neighbors, taking more walks with dogs, and raising more animals.

Jim was relentlessly curious. He loved experiencing other places and cultures in his extensive travels, read constantly, and collected avidly whatever caught his eye: political buttons, amber cigarette holders, Navajo rugs and baskets, old postcards, the list goes on and on. He also cherished his family and its history, preserving everything from his father’s childhood stamp collection to a spittoon with a portrait of his great-grandfather on one side. 

Above all else, Jim was a generous soul. Throughout his life, he made time for volunteer work: helping at a food pantry near his farm, leading the charge to save an old lift bridge over the St. Croix River, devoting countless hours in support of his local Democratic Party, and maintaining walking trails in New Mexico were just a few of his endeavors. He also made time to stay in touch with his far-flung friends and family. With his trusty iPad on his lap, he regularly shared his keen and often hilarious observations of life on the farm, on the trail, or in a foreign land.

Jim will be acutely missed by all who knew him.

Jim is survived by his wife of 27 years, Sunny DeYoung; stepson Seth Rozycki, wife Bonnie and son Anthony, of Little Falls, MN; stepson Miles DeYoung, wife Denise and daughter Crystal, of Florence, CO.; brother, Bill Laskin, wife Lisa and their children, Peter and Isabel, of Cambridge, MA., and his sister-in-law, KT Laskin, of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was predeceased by his parents, Arthur and Nancy, and his brother Tom.