One of them was my dad, Walter Stevens, who served in the European Theater. He was accompanied by my brother Dave and me, and when we got off the bus, we immediately heard a voice cry out from the crowd — “Hi Walt, hi Paul, hi Dave!”

The voice was that of our longtime Fort Dodge friend and community college classmate Jim Lloyd, an Army veteran himself, who made the journey from his home in Herndon, Virginia., to be with us and act as our guide and cameraman during the tour. And to share a moment of friendship.

It was just one of many, many examples of someone who deeply cared for his fellow man and his Maker — qualities that stayed with him until the very end of his 80 years on this earth.

Lloyd died May 26 under hospice care at his home in Herndon, a Washington suburb. After fiercely fighting through and surviving multiple cancers, open heart surgery and a life–saving bone marrow transplant over the course of 10 years, it was metastatic prostate cancer that led to his passing.

When she announced her father’s death to his many friends, daughter Tiffany Lloyd Severtson said, “By the grace of God and the light of the moon, our amazing Dad, Jim Lloyd, entered the Church Triumphant at 3 a.m. We know he rests with his Savior by the words of his own testimony he shared with others, at every opportunity. He did not struggle, he went peacefully and in an instant, he was with Jesus. We are so thankful for the man he was to all of us, and so many of you. This is a profound thing to endure, but we do it together and with full trust in the Lord.”

Back in 2010, the odds were stacked against him welcoming in the new year and celebrating future “re–birthdays”.

But the odds didn’t take into account the power of #JimStrong — the rallying cry for his family, friends and health caregivers when this man with a strong will to live and a deep religious faith was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Undergoing induction chemotherapy while isolated 47 days in the midst of the COVID pandemic, followed by a 2021 bone marrow transplant from a donor who was his great nephew, Brandon Hummel of Urbandale, #JimStrong became part of his rebirth that began on the day of the transplant — Feb. 19, 2021 — and which he celebrated for the next five years. Transplant patients get a new birthday along with their new bone marrow.

“I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia — usually people die of it quickly,” Lloyd said at the time. “For the longest time, they didn’t give me much chance. Dying was a very likely possibility, but I preferred to live. I was blessed with the best nursing care possible.”

Complicating the diagnosis was that it came in April 2020 when the coronavirus epidemic was just getting started. He was moved onto the oncology floor of Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, 30 minutes from Herndon, where Lloyd and his wife Babette (Babs) lived and where they raised their two daughters, Heather and Tiffany. Floor 8A became his home for the next 47 days.

Lloyd’s Fort Dodge roots brought him strength of character and the ability to get along with people and served him well throughout his life and particularly in his difficult medical journey.

James Arthur Lloyd and his six sisters — Gloriann, Dolores, Joyce, Donna, Linda and Janis — were the children of Arthur James Lloyd and his wife Elsie. With Lloyd’s death, all seven are now deceased. Lloyd’s sister Donna J. Cuvelier, of Cedar Falls, passed away May 11, 2026.

The family lived on a farm near Dumont — an hour and a half north and east of Fort Dodge — when on July 30, 1959, Lloyd’s parents were driving on old Highway 20 west of Alden when a car crossed into their lane, causing a head–on collision that instantly killed his father.

“When my dad was killed, that was really awful,” Lloyd said. “We had a good relationship. I’m not a crier. I guess I thought that as the man of the house at 13, I shouldn’t shed tears, so I don’t.”

Lloyd was going into eighth grade at a school in Dumont and finished before his mother moved the family to Fort Dodge in 1960, purchasing a home at 1016 N. 22nd St.

The monthly Social Security benefit his mother got from his father’s work as a farmer was instrumental in the family’s survival — an irony in that not many years later, Lloyd joined the Social Security Administration for a lifelong career.

Lloyd’s Sunday school teacher at First Evangelical United Brethren Church was Walt Morgan, the meat market manager at Fort Dodge Fruit & Grocery.

“He knew I was turning 16 and said, ‘Jim, come down and work with me in the meat market.’ I got an apron and hat and worked in the afternoons. I learned meat cutting and I kept that job through junior college. I also worked 16 hours a week at the Post Office.”

After graduating from Fort Dodge Senior High in 1964, Lloyd attended then–Fort Dodge Community College where he became active in numerous groups — starting the college Young Republicans Club and the Sociology Club, serving as vice president of Circle K and president of the International Relations Club.

Lloyd and several of his good friends — Daryl Beall, Jeff Brooks, Jim Janvrin and Joe Tjaden — worked as school bus drivers for the Fort Dodge school district. Lloyd also worked at radio station KWMT–FM doing news and music programming.

“Jim was a good Forever Friend and managed my successful campaign for student body president at Fort Dodge Community College where we met,” Beall, a former state senator, recalled. “Jim was a very spiritual man and possessed faith and strength in his future afterlife. He stood out as a good person, interesting man and a dear friend.”

After he received his draft notice in February 1968, Lloyd enlisted in the Army and — in part because of his experience as a meat cutter — was assigned to Harlingen, Texas, as part of a five–man veterinary detachment. His duty: to inspect fresh shrimp at Port Isabel, some of which was freeze–dried for distribution to troops around the world.

He went looking for a church within walking distance and that is what led to meeting Babette Fulwider at First Methodist Church of Harlingen. Her father, Paul, was choir director, and her mother, Maryellen, invited him to join the family for lunch. Jim and Babette began dating in August 1968 and were engaged the following Valentine’s Day before they were married in Fort Dodge June 21, 1969.

Lloyd got orders for Vietnam, and in October 1969 was on a plane to Vietnam that included Fort Dodge friend John Clements. Lloyd was assigned to the Army base at Long Binh as a food inspector. A highlight was attending a Bob Hope tour that featured Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

“I got to get the autograph of Armstrong,” he said. “We shook hands and he signed it. I still have it and it’s a treasure that I have framed.”

Returning home in October 1970, Lloyd attended Pan American University (now the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley) and graduated in 1972 with a degree in government. An interview with a Social Security recruiter resulted in landing a position in 1973 with the agency. His first assignment: the north Bronx of New York City as a claims representative. He and his wife were transferred to San Antonio where they adopted daughter Heather; 15 months later, Tiffany was born. The young family was transferred to Juneau, Alaska, for two years before moving to the Washington area.

Lloyd retired from the Social Security Administration in 2008 after 35 years of service, in favor of being a “full time Grandpa.” Babs retired from teaching piano in 2020. In retirement they enjoyed countless trips to see family and friends all over the United States as well as many countries. They particularly enjoyed Viking River cruises, but the highlight was their trip to Israel with their church in March 2023. They also served as leaders of a small group with their church for the past few years. They both believed the greatest benefit of retirement was spending time being an active part in the lives of their five granddaughters.