James Ronald Warren, a war hero, author and voice for his community's history, died in his sleep Thursday (Sept. 13). He was 87.

Mr. Warren was a former director of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) and president of Edmonds Community College.

He wrote more than 16 books in a prolific writing career on the history of Seattle, King County and area businesses. A longtime Bellevue resident, he also wrote more than 1,000 articles for various publications, including a series on World War II history in The Seattle Times.

A dogged researcher, in his work on Seattle's Great Fire of 1889 he cleared up an error repeated in publications for almost 100 years as to the source of the fire, correctly identifying it as a workshop at First Avenue and Madison Street, and not a paint shop above it.

"He was an extraordinary public historian," said Lorraine McConaghy, an author and public historian at MOHAI, where Mr. Warren was director from 1979 to 1987. "I think above all it was his eagerness to connect and engage with ordinary people. For him, history was not an academic experience, it was a shared community experience. He had a wonderful community connection."

Mr. Warren's work brought history to a broad audience. "His real legacy is all the people who gained a love for great Seattle stories," said Leonard Garfield, current director of MOHAI. "He got the idea that history was really about people, and he made history come alive."

A former prisoner of war, Mr. Warren was captured Jan. 9, 1945, in the Battle of the Bulge. By the time he was liberated by American troops four months later, he had lost 40 pounds, his half-brother Claude Warren, of Good Springs, Nev., remembered.

Mr. Warren received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his participation in the battle. He didn't talk about his experiences until years later, his daughter Gail Warren, of Seattle, said.

While he was a two-time cancer survivor in addition to being a POW, he rarely spoke of what he had overcome in life. "It was service over self," said longtime friend Pamela Rolfe, of Bellevue, who came to know Mr. Warren at Seattle Rotary, where he was a 40-year member. "He walked the talk."

It was at Rotary meetings that his gift for humor blended with a zest for research, said Gwen Warren, his wife of 63 years. "He liked to tell stories, and that was kind of his shtick," she said. " At Rotary, he would go learn the facts and humor and wrap it all up an in a package about anyone who was getting an award."

Born in Goldendale, Klickitat County, on May 25, 1925, Mr. Warren graduated from Wishram High School in 1943 and was drafted for service in the war.

He wrote some of his most gripping prose as a war historian. In his 1992 column for The Seattle Times titled "Lucky to Be Alive — Battlefield Memories, Frozen In Time," he described the day his position on the battlefield was overrun by the enemy and he was taken prisoner.

He searched desperately for safety in an abandoned house in a nearby village, cramming himself between a chimney in the attic and the wall. Mr. Warren wrote: "Footsteps — hard-heeled boots sounded on the stairs. A rifle barrel appeared above the landing, rose higher, followed by a German helmet, beneath which nervous eyes swept about the room. I stopped breathing."

He returned home from World War II in 1945 and earned a degree in public speaking at Washington State University, then a master's in communications and a Ph.D. in history at the University of Washington.

Over his career, his work ranged from being a classical-music radio host in the Seattle area to academia, serving as Edmonds Community College's first president.

He retired at age 62 to spend more time on the writing he so enjoyed.

"He loved to do research and write it up in his den downstairs," his daughter recalled. "As a kid we would go see where Chief Seattle was buried, where the old forts were. As a teenager you were kind of like, oh."

But as an adult, she came to appreciate her father's gift. "He could make almost any history interesting. He was an educator at heart. And a storyteller," she said.

In addition to his wife, daughter and half-brother, he is survived by his half-sister, Kay Titterness, of Poulsbo, and son, Jeff, recently of Kirkland.

In lieu of flowers the family requests gifts to your favorite charity, or the Nature Conservancy of Washington, MOHAI, or the Group Health Foundation. There will be no services.

Seattle Times researcher Gene Balk contributed to this story.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @lyndavmapes.