People of Lincoln

Jim Partington: Deeply Rooted in Nebraska Soil

By Randy Bretz

Jim Partington grew up in Lincoln, lived in cities across the country, became a pilot in the Navy, commanded a number of Navy units as an Admiral, worked in the Pentagon, returned to Nebraska and managed a couple of technology companies, and even managed the Nebraska Restaurant Association... all that before he retired for the fourth time and turned the original family homestead into a vineyard and winery. Jim has such deep roots in Nebraska that even after a career of more than 30 years in the Navy, he returned with his wife and enticed their three daughters to move here as well. 

Partington’s family has been around Nebraska since they established a homestead at what is now 162nd and Adams streets, on Lancaster County’s eastern edge. This parcel of land has been in his family since 1874 when Ulysses Grant was President. Patrick Holoren, his dad’s mother’s father from Ireland, settled there. While the first home on the land was a sod structure, the building that now serves as Deer Springs Winery's tasting room is actually the refurbished and enlarged family home that was built on the land after it was homesteaded. 

But, let’s fast-forward to learn more about Jim "Admiral" Partington. He was part of the first class to graduate from Pius X High School in Lincoln. He spent a couple of years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and then completed his degree at the University of Rhode Island so he could become a Navy pilot. He received his commission and wings in 1961. During his flight training in Pensacola, Florida, he met his wife, Barbara, while on leave in New Orleans. After dating for a year, they married, and the Navy sent them to California where he commanded the first Navy F-18 training squadron. In case you’re not aware of it, the F-18 jet is the plane that the Navy’s Top Gun flies. 

There isn’t adequate space in this publication to detail Partington’s 32 years in the Navy, his time in the Pentagon coordinating the Navy’s F-18 operations, his work at the Naval facility on the Great Lakes, or the birth of his three daughters in California. Know that he served our country with distinction. 

Following his distinguished career in the Navy, in 1992, Jim and Barbara left the Great Lakes and settled back on the great prairie of Nebraska. 

When I asked about the incredible link he has with this parcel of land in Lancaster County, Partington commented that he’d worked on this farm when he was in high school. Even as a man who served the military branch primarily on the high seas, the little piece of the prairie in Lancaster County held roots that ran incredibly deep. You might say as deep as the grape vines he planted in 2005 to help pay the taxes on the property. In 2008, he and his family established Deer Springs Winery. Today they grow two varieties of grapes and use them to make the wine they sell. And, that homestead is, in addition to growing grapes and making wine, a place where hundreds gather on weekends for evening concerts. 

Randy Bretz is well past 55, and he enjoys life as a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, storyteller, author, professor, communicator, and civic activist.