If you ask Northport resident Jim Wetherbee – an 85-year-old guy who isn’t afraid to admit he’s a nude model – what it means to be “a character,” his response is clear and quick.

“A character is a person who isn’t bound by society’s rules. Someone who does his own thing,” he said.

Given the definition, the Kalamazoo College graduate is indeed a character – and proud of it.

Jim with wife, Marilyn

“If I had to live my life all over again, I’d do everything exactly the same, only sooner,” said Wetherbee with gentleness in his voice, a twinkle in his eye, and an ever-pervasive smile written on his face. “The only regret I have is that I didn’t graduate from college with an art major.”

Wetherbee did graduate with a history major, a degree he admits has served him well over the course of his career and life.

Of key importance to Wetherbee and Marilyn, his wife of 61 years, firstly is having the freedom to make their own choices; secondly, giving to their community; and thirdly, spending time and enjoying their extended family.

What exactly makes this wise old man a character?

For starters, he is the oldest male nude model for several drawing classes in the area. He models because he believes it’s crucial for artists to study the human figure.

“There’s nothing sleazy or sexy about nude modeling. The human body is beautiful, and many very renowned artists have said over and over again that if students can draw the human body, they can draw anything,” he explained.

He said area artists asked him to model because they knew he was open-minded and they also knew that he loved the arts.

“I think prior to my modeling, there wasn’t a wrinkle in the whole load of other models. It’s relatively easy to find young, slim women who will model, but very difficult to find older people, let alone men, who will model, so this is my contribution to the world of art,” he said.

Wetherbee has been and continues to be in several community leadership roles.
He’s been president and treasurer of the village council of Northport, a board member with Leelanau Memorial Hospital and Munson Health Care, and continues to be active in the Northport Community Arts Center.

He and Marilyn have recently been given the distinguished position of serving as co-presidents of the Emeritus Club at Kalamazoo College, where they both graduated in the spring of 1946.

Another aspect of his life that makes him a character is that he and Marilyn decided long ago that they would reject the life of prestige, fast careers and big money. More than 30 years ago, he left his job and home downstate where he was the marketing manager of consumer products for St. Regis Paper Company, and opted for the “up north” lifestyle.

“We just decided that having a bunch of things didn’t matter to us as much as living in a beautiful area, and we absolutely love Leelanau County,” said Marilyn.

She took a job teaching in Northport Schools, from which she retired over 16 years ago.

“We are just more interested in what people do than in what they have,” she said.
In 1970 the couple bought the Bud Cottage in Northport. The building, formerly been a boarding house, was located on six lots that had a little creek running through it.

“We had to take the old house down because it just couldn’t be feasibly renovated,” said Jim. “We put the frame of our new house up in 1972.”

This house wasn’t just any house. The Wetherbees decided that they weren’t going to settle for the routine life of grown adults living all over the country, and family relationships that lack depth because of lack of time. So they built a sort of Wetherbee family complex right in the middle of downtown Northport.

“I designed the outside of the house first, and then Marilyn decided where all of the rooms would go. She could do anything she wanted, as long as she didn’t move the windows and the doors,” said Jim.

The top floor of the home is really two apartments that adjoin in the middle. Their youngest son, Tom, lives in one of the apartments with his wife, Deb. They raised their two children there.

In the bottom half is a work studio and gallery for their daughter-in-law, Char Bickel, who lives in Northport with her husband Steve, who is a teacher at Northport School.

At the helm

Another unique feature to the house is that the basement isn’t really a basement at all, but rather a boat workshop.

“My sons, Steve and Tom, and I built a 32-foot 1930s style sailboat in the lower half of this house. It’s a beautiful boat, and we all enjoy it very much,” said Jim.

He said that he’s proud that the boat receives a lot of attention at the Northport marina.

“The harbormaster has told us that our boat is the second most photographed boat in the marina, bested only by a million-dollar yacht. Not bad, huh?” he concluded.

Favorite food, saying and book:

Favorite food: “Oh my golly, that’s a tough one. I love cheesecake.”
Favorite saying: “I really don’t have one. I do like one my wife says – ’it’s better than a poke in the eye.’”
Favorite book: “The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk. Terrific stuff.”