James Amory Perkins Homans, 88, of Canton, Massachusetts, Jimmy to his friends, died at dawn on June 16th after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Yvonne, three sons from his first marriage, James, John and Sam, seven grandchildren, Michael, Catherine, Daniel, Caroline, Charles, Stewart and Camilla, and two stepchildren, Genevieve and Henry. Born at home near Blue Hill in Canton, he attended Noble and Greenough, Harvard College and Harvard Law School, then served in the army in postwar Japan. There he married his first wife, Phoebe, with whom he raised a family and remained friends until her death. He had a long legal career as a partner at Peabody & Arnold in Boston and also served as steward of Homans Associates, the commercial insulation business founded by his father. Named for an ancestor who was killed in the Civil War, he lived by the moral and aesthetic code of his Yankee forbears. The youngest of five children, he was a loving brother, husband, father, stepfather, and grandfather as well as an attentive uncle to his thirteen nieces and nephews. In his later years he found deep satisfaction in his role as family patriarch. He doted on his dogs, who were inseparable companions. A witty, compassionate, scrupulously fair man, he was a lifelong supporter of liberal causes and social justice who quietly helped those around him in times of need. His lifelong stutter was a challenge he surmounted every day. He had many avocations, gardening, music, golf, reading, sailing and Boston sports among them. After his retirement, oil painting became his consuming occupation. The roughhewn beauty of the settings of his Ponkapoag home and family cabin on Martha's Vineyard informed and inspired his art, a vivid vision of the Massachusetts world that had formed him and that he loved all his life. Funeral services private.