While at PMA, Monsour lettered in football and was a part of the drill team and marched in a lot of parades. He says he had too many buddies to mention them all.
About lessons acquired by attending PMA that helped him in later life, Jim said, "I am sure PMA was the foundation of many of my life lessons. On the lighter side, every Wednesday and Saturday we had pancakes for breakfast. This is where I earned to love peanut butter on pancakes, which I still enjoy today."
Jim said the instructors were like characters in a play. He remembers that one of the instructors thought the World Series was a current event so he brought a TV to class.
Another teacher would toss a tennis ball at students if they nodded off in his class. While others gave out disciplinary action by making cadets run around the flagpole or stand with their noses just touching a line on the wall for what seemed like hours.
Jim married his wife Carolyn, who was from Newkirk. They have three daughters and three grandsons.
He has returned to the PMA reunions a couple of times, the last was at the Marland Mansion.
Jim Monsour, a Ponca Military Cadet from 1964 to 1968, found his niche in the business world in photography and graphic arts. He operates Jim Monsour Photography in Glencoe, Mo., which is in St. Louis County. The PMA was a tradition in the Monsour family, with Jim's father James F. Monsour Sr., being a member of the first graduating class and his uncle Jack Monsour attending a year or two later.
Although tradition was one reason, Jim admits he attended because he had a discipline problem, so naturally he spent numerous laps marching around the flagpole, which was typical of most of the cadets.
Jim enrolled at PMA in the eighth grade and completed the 11th grade there, leaving school to join the U.S. Army, where he earned his general equivalency diploma that same year. The Army trained him as a medical corpsman.
After military service Jim continued his education at Oklahoma State University in 1978 earning a Bachelor of Science Business Administration degree and today remains an avid "cowpoke" fan.