Obituary of James David DeMartino
James David DeMartino, 72, of Glastonbury, CT., beloved brother of Chuck DeMartino, passed away peacefully in his home on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Jim was born February 14, 1953 in Lancaster, PA to the late Charles and Patricia (Shenk) DeMartino. After growing up and graduating high school in Lancaster, he moved to Chicago to attend The Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing in 1980. While there Jim met his future wife Pam Rubin, and the two lived in Chicago for a few years before moving to New Haven, Connecticut, where they both attended graduate school at the Yale University School of Art. Jim received his Masters of Fine Art in Painting from Yale in 1985, and he also taught some classes while at Yale.
In the 1990’s Jim and Pam became interested in spirituality and in 1998 the two of them moved to South Fallsburg, New York, where they lived and worked on staff for two years at a meditation ashram. Jim worked as the community personnel director, responsible for staffing and assigning jobs at the complex.
After leaving the ashram, in an unlikely turn of events, Jim was hired as an assistant to a certified financial planner in the area, who taught him the ropes -- and he found that he enjoyed the job and had found his professional calling. In 2009 they moved to Glastonbury where Jim joined Gottfried & Somberg Wealth Management, where he worked until his retirement at the end of February, 2025. Jim truly loved his job at Gottfried & Somberg, and the people he worked with, and he felt very much a part of a family there.
Jim’s late wife Pam passed away in early 2012 after a long battle with cancer, and Jim was a devoted caregiver for the last several years of her life.
At a grief counselor’s suggestion after Pam’s death, Jim joined a dating site and met Cathy Prior in 2014, with whom he shared many common interests – music, art, sports, among them. The two of them shared a very happy seven years together, with lots of travel, museum visits, concerts, and annual trips to New York to watch the Mets play Jim’s Dodgers, before cancer claimed Cathy’s life in July 2021.
From an early age Jim had an interest in art and drawing, and this became a life-long passion. His drawing and sketching in his early years gave way to oil painting for most of his adult life, with a particular interest and focus on light and shadows. The arrival of the Beatles in early 1964 triggered an enduring love of music, with a palate that included everything from classical to jazz to hard rock. He played guitar nearly daily, but also dabbled with keyboards and assorted other stringed instruments. His music library included hundreds of albums and nearly two thousand compact discs. Jim was a longtime sports fan, with baseball – and his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers -- being his favorites. He was an avid reader of non-fiction, and typically had a pile of books stacked near his favorite chair, several of which would be in-progress.
Jim is survived by his brother Chuck and his wife Kathy, of Knoxville, TN, his niece Elizabeth Newton and her husband Aubrey and their children Jack and June of Knoxville, and aunts Diane Palmer of Escondido, CA, and Dolores Ruetz of Woodside, CA, along with multiple cousins.
A Celebration of Jim’s Life is scheduled for February 13, 2026 at 4 pm, in Mulryan Funeral Home, 725 Hebron Ave., Glastonbury. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Hartford, CT, Connecticut Foodshare, Wallingford, CT, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.
For online condolences please visit www.mulryanfh.com.