James joined Harvard University in 1916, though left in 1918 for topographic study at a ROTC camp.[8] He decided to join the military and fought in World War I,[9] then returned to Harvard to complete a B.A. and an M.A. before transferring to Clark University,[8] where he received a Ph.D. in 1923.[10] Following this, he joined the University of Michigan faculty.[11] He shifted his priorities to his military service in 1941, after the onset of World War II.
In 1943, James was raised to the rank of Lieutenant colonel, and he served as the head of a geographic division during World War II.[2] Following the war, in 1945, James accepted an offer from George Cressey to join the faculty of Syracuse University, where he earned the title Maxwell Professor of Geography in 1964, and became emeritus in 1970.[12][2] He served as chair of the Geography Department from 1950 to 1958,[2] succeeding Cressey in the position.[13] During the summer of 1962, he toured Europe by car.[14] Though the specific date ranges are unknown, he also served as adjunct professor of geography at Florida Atlantic University during the 1970s.[15] He was admitted to the Florida Society of Geographers in 1973.[16]
James visited the campus of Rollins College in 1965 to speak at a Latin-American forum.[17] He had also spoken multiple times at the University of Kentucky's Geography in the Bluegrass Day.[18]
^Morey, Lillian B. (ed.). Geography at Syracuse 1967. p. 5. In August 1966, Dr. James was honorary president of the Association of American Geographers and gave the annual presidential address at the banquet in Toronto.
^Morey, Lillian B. (ed.). Geography at Syracuse 1967. p. 5. In May he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti.
