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James Malick, interior designer for many fast-food restaurants

James A. Malick II, 59, of Pennsauken, a designer of fast-food restaurant interiors, died Saturday, April 5, at Kennedy University Hospital in Cherry Hill following a heart attack at Bonair-Nigorski baseball field in Pennsauken.

James A. Malick II
James A. Malick IIRead more

James A. Malick II, 59, of Pennsauken, a designer of fast-food restaurant interiors, died Saturday, April 5, at Kennedy University Hospital in Cherry Hill following a heart attack at Bonair-Nigorski baseball field in Pennsauken.

"He was preparing the field for a game" for the Pennsauken Youth Athletic Activities baseball season when he was stricken, his son James III said.

Mr. Malick was president of the PYAA Babe Ruth baseball division, for players from 13 to 16 years old, as well as an umpire for their games.

Gordon Hartson, who has now replaced Mr. Malik as president, said in an interview that "he worked tirelessly on the fields, to maintain them in top shape. . . .

"Mentoring players to be the best they could be," Hartson added, Mr. Malick "always had a great attitude and made the kids feel they were special."

Mr. Malick graduated from Cherry Hill West High School in 1974 and earned an associate's degree in hotel management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 1981.

But he had made his name in foods before he had earned his degree.

"When I first met him, in his early 20s, he was known as King James," his wife, Sharon, said.

At a sandwich shop that he operated at Ninth Street and the Boardwalk in Ocean City, N.J., "his big claim to fame" was the King James Polish kielbasa.

"It was an outdoor kind of seating thing," she said.

After college, "his first job was with Rusty Scupper, as a bar manager in Cherry Hill in the early 80s," she said.

"He's had a multitude of jobs" since then, she said. "He mostly worked from home" while designing stores from South Jersey to Washington, D.C.

"He worked with Manhattan Bagel as a project manager," she said, and with McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, both in the 1980s and 1990s.

Most recently, she said, he did his designing of such places for H & K Construction Co., a general contractor in Sinton, Texas. During the last two or three years, she said, he was a substitute teacher in elementary schools in Camden and Pennsauken.

A fourth degree Knight of Columbus, he had been for the last 10 years an usher at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Church in Merchantville.

Besides his wife and son, Mr. Malick is survived by son Jordon and two sisters.

A visitation was set from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 11, at the Falco, Caruso & Leonard Funeral Home, 6600 N. Browning Rd., Pennsauken, before a 10 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. Peter's Church, 43 W. Maple Ave., Merchantville.

Donations may be sent to http://pyaa.net.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.carusocare.com.