James Joseph O'Reilly

James J. (Jim) O’Reilly passed away peacefully on Friday, January 23, 2026 in his home in Wolftown, VA surrounded by his loving family. He will be remembered forever by Mary, his wife of 70 years and their five children Patricia, James (Lolita), John (Joyce) and their children Jack and Colin (dec), Kieran (Nancy), Noreen (John) and their son Sean. He is also survived by his sisters Dolores, Geraldine and Philomena and sister-in-law Claudia and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
Jim was born on August 11, 1930 in Drumquin, Co. Tyrone, N.Ireland. He was preceded in death by his parents Thomas O’Reilly and Mary O’Kane O’Reilly as well as his siblings Bridileen, Sr. Gretta, Tomas and Alphonsus.
He emigrated from Ireland to the USA in 1949 and became a US Citizen on November 10, 1953. Jim was a veteran of the USAF and member of the 1st Computations Technical Squadron. It was the only squadron of its kind in the Air Force and had a short life from 1948 to 1954 during which it played a major role in establishing the Atlantic Missile Range.
Jim was also a member of the American Legion, a member of the Knights of Columbus and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He held a BA in Mathematics and a BS in Engineering Electronics from Hofstra University.
Over the years Jim worked in many areas of the evolving digital world. He was the American Bosch Arma company expert on the guidance computer of the ATLAS ICBM; an Advisory Systems Engineer for IBM World Trade; a Manager of Systems Programming at Western Union; a Research and Development Director of Communications at ITT and he joined Automatic Data Processing in 1973 as a Division Vice President holding many different positions. Jim was proud that he participated in the astounding growth of the digital computer era.
Jim’s funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady of the Blue Ridge in Madison, Virginia at 11 am on Wednesday, February 4, 2026 with internment following at the Culpeper National Cemetery in Culpeper, VA. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to the Alzheimer’s Society or the Parkinson’s Foundation.