James Edward McHale Jr.
June 13, 1942 - June 3, 2025

Educated in Project & Business Management and Administration; national and international studies in contingency planning, prevention, and response strategies; published nationally and internationally in conference proceedings, magazines and journals; lectured nationally and internationally on contingency planning, oil spill prevention and emergency response. Approaching 30 years in emergency management; past regional and international manager of oil spill response corporations; consultant providing professional, technical and emergency management services and Incident Command Systems training to the U.S. and foreign governmental agencies, local communities, the cruise ship, commercial fishing and oil industries; current ICS and IMS training certifications.

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Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council (CIRCAC) was saddened to learn about the passing of long time Prevention, Response, Operations, and Safety (PROPS) Committee member James McHale in June. 

James was first appointed to the PROPS Committee in 2014, where he served as Vice-Chair, bringing decades’ worth of experience and insight to the group. 

“Jim was a pioneer in the oil spill response industry,” said CIRCAC Executive Director Michael Munger. “If I wanted an answer to a spill response question, I could always count on Jim.”

Another longtime CIRCAC Board member, Bob Flint (Recreation Groups), said he first met McHale during the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, while Flint was with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and McHale was working with the Ship Escort Response Vessel System (SERVS) for Alyeska Pipeline. “We shared I don’t know how many rides to and from the airport over the years for different meetings. He brought so much to the PROPS Committee and was a great teacher. We’ll miss him.”

A Vietnam veteran, Jim had more than 35 years’ experience working in various management capacities with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, Alaska Clean Seas, SEACOR Environmental Services International and British Petroleum among others. With undergraduate studies in Business Administration, Jim participated in national and international studies on contingency planning, prevention and response strategies and is published nationally and internationally in conference proceedings, magazines and journals. 

We offer our condolences to Jim’s family, and thank him for his years of dedicated service to CIRCAC.

Remembering Longtime PROPS committee member James McHale, July 1, 2025, Circac.org