Dr. James Jonathan Kraatz, 61, of Kalamazoo, Michigan died on Friday, May 23 following a long illness and surrounded by his family.

He was born March 31, 1964 in Urbana, Illinois to James Melville Kraatz and Nancy Puck Kraatz who preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, daughter Alice (20) and son James (18); brother Matt Kraatz and his wife Vickie Hemann, and their three children Henry, Walter and Eleanor; sister Ann Kraatz; step-mother, Celia Kraatz; his much-beloved uncle, Ed Puck, aunt Marge Puck, and their sons Steve and Scott Puck.

He graduated from Champaign Centennial High School in 1982. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois in 1988, having studied vocal performance, technical theater and receiving a pilot’s license. He studied biology at Illinois College for two years before entering medical School at Rush University, Chicago, where he graduated in 1994. In 2001, he completed surgical residency and a fellowship in critical care at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2002 he completed a burn surgery fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

He spent the next two decades as trauma and burn surgeon in Columbia, Missouri and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and traveling to small hospitals throughout Wisconsin, Indiana and Kansas.

He was a voracious learner whose interests, remarkable talents and skills were wide and varied. Among them were fishing, opera, aviation, travel, arguing, cooking, hunting, auto mechanics, fine dining and appliance repair.

He was a singular person whose life was unfortunately short, and undeniably large.