Jim E. Cohlmia

Jim E. Cohlmia, longtime Wichita, KS resident who spent his final years in Arizona, passed away Sunday, July 19, at his home in Mesa. A successful stockbroker and art collector, Cohlmia is descended from a prominent Lebanese family who homesteaded Oklahoma farmlands early in the 20th century, and rose to prominence throughout the state for their entrepreneurial and enterprising business skills.

Born December 6, 1933, in Fairview, OK, he was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he majored in business. Cohlmia served in the United States Air Force, and after tours abroad, he began his career in Phoenix as a stockbroker. He relocated with his entire family to Wichita, and continued as a stockbroker there, a profession he would continue well into his retirement years after moving for health and golf reasons to Arizona.

With his wife Ruth (née Quibedeaux), Cohlmia opened a Wichita art gallery in the 1960s, and began his time as a serious collector. His eclectic tastes ranged from French realists and Remington bronzes to Western belt buckles and art from Carnegie Hall. Within the past year, Cohlmia’s deep religious faith moved him to donate his world-class collection of religious iconographies to St. Ignatius Orthodox Christian Church in Mesa, a burgeoning church community he helped found after moving to Arizona. He was also a member of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita. Cohlmia was very close to his church community in Mesa. His godson Lee Chichester, and his wife Elizabeth and daughter Juliana, were with him when he passed away.

Cohlmia belonged to Alta Mesa Country Club in Mesa, and Crestview Country Club in Wichita, where he pursued his lifelong love of the game of golf and the colorful attire men of his generation enjoyed. He had a passion for sports cars, and once relished arriving at the Arizona Biltmore to pick up his niece in his newly acquired purple Porsche convertible, and another time arriving at her home in a white sports car with matching luggage.

Cohlmia was preceded in death by his wife Ruth; parents Ellis and Lillie Farris Cohlmia; his beloved brother Bill E. Cohlmia, and two precious sisters, Virginia Saliba (J.M.), and Joan Razook (Kenneth). He is survived by sister-in-law Nancy Cohlmia, along with his nieces and nephews, many of whom attended his 90th birthday gala in 2023, hosted by his companion Martha Panella.

Services for Cohlmia will be held at St. Ignatius Orthodox Church in Mesa, beginning with a Visitation and Trisagion Prayers on Thursday, July 23 at 6 p.m., followed by his Funeral at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 24. Graveside services will take place at the Cohlmia Family burial site in Wichita on Friday, July 31 at 10 a.m.

The family requests remembrances be sent to the St. Ignatius Building Fund.