Jim Tinker was Scout Executive in Chattanooga from 1980-1985.

James (Jim) Tinker was raised in Brighton, a small steel mill town in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama.  He attended Jacksonville State University, University of Alabama in Birmingham and earned a degree in Counseling from Samford University.  After working a couple of years in the steel mills and running his own successful plumbing business, Jim went to work for the Boy Scouts of America in 1966.

For the next 33 years he worked for Scouting in New Orleans, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Birmingham.  During his employment by the Boy Scouts, Jim was instrumental in the development of several innovative programs, trained hundreds of professional scouters, raised over 40 million dollars, built numerous camp facilities and office buildings, and oversaw the creation of one of the largest Boy Scout councils in the nation when he merged several councils in North Alabama.

As Jim and Judy moved around the country they always searched for a church that offered a youth program that appealed to their daughters and made them want to attend church.  As a result, Jim has served as an ordained deacon in the Baptist church, was elected an elder in a Presbyterian church and served as chairman of the Administrative Board in a Methodist Church.  He also served as a Lay Leader and was certified as a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church.

Since his retirement from the BSA in 1999, Jim has served as a consultant for the BSA, owned and operated a charter fishing boat, served on the staff of his local church and was a successful realtor.  Some of his honors include the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, Cross and Flame award from the United Methodist Church, Realtor's Million Dollar Club, Leadership Birmingham and Paul Harris Fellow Rotary International.  Jim and his wife of 50 years, Judy, have three biological daughters plus a fourth daughter who became a member of the family when she was a teenager.  They have twelve grandchildren.  Jim and Judy divide their time between a cabin in the mountains of North Georgia and a condo on the Gulf Coast.