James P. Hamilton of Ghent, NY, a former marine insurance executive, died on August 24, 2010 at Columbia Memorial Hospital.  He was 91.  The cause was heart failure.  Mr. Hamilton was born in Sturgis, Michigan to Wanda and Howard Hamilton.  He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology and ultimately earned a degree in aeronautical engineering.  He joined the Army Air Corps, where he served during World War II.  While in the Army Air Corps, he met and married Marguerite Adelmann, a Wave, to whom he remained married until her death in 1988. After the War, Mr. Hamilton's initial employmentet was as a yacht designer in Damariscotta, Maine.  Subsequently, he returned to the Midwest where he spent his career as a marine insurance executive, first at Johnson & Higgins, and later at Marsh & McLennan.  His specialty was marine insurance on the Mississippi River, its tributaries and the Gulf of Mexico.  After his retirement from Marsh & McLennan, he became President of Compass Marine, Inc., a barge company located in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he and his wife resided.  They then returned to Sturgis, Michigan for a time.  He moved finally to Ghent in 2000 to be near his daughter. Mr. Hamilton had a wide variety of interests, including music, especially jazz, cars, boats and aircraft and was an avid reader.  He was an adventure traveler, repeatedly visiting sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Central and South America, indulging another hobby, photography.  At the age of 89 he drove a Corvette Sting Ray.  Columbia County became a true home to him and he became involved in activities such as the Editorial Board of the Columbia County Historical Society magazine. Mr. Hamilton is survived by his daughter, Jean, and son-in-law, Richard McCarthy of Ghent and New York City and by his sister, Sue Thomas of Oakland Park, Florida. A gathering to remember the life of James Hamilton will be held at the Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, New York at 10:00 AM on September 4, 2010. Arrangements entrusted to the French, Gifford, Preiter & Blasl funeral home, Chatham, NY.