Jim Ricketts was going through files in his office recently when he came across a typewritten piece of paper that had yellowed with time. It detailed the amount of money that tourists had spent in the resort city each year from 1973 to 1986. At some point, Ricketts, the tourism director, had circled 1974.

He showed the document to a staff member, Tiffany Russell, who said he would often emerge from his office whenever he found an interesting paper to share a story or two about it with his employees.

“Jim was very proud of our city’s tourism history as a way to remind us of how far we’ve come,” Russell said.

Ricketts knew the city’s history well. After 42 years with the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, he was planning to retire in a week. As parties were being planned to celebrate, an email from City Manager Dave Hansen went out late Wednesday saying Ricketts had died after a brief illness. He was 75.

“He was as fine and decent a man as you could find – gentle, kind, and so very proud of his staff and colleagues,” Hansen wrote.

The news was a blow to all who knew him.

“I’m really going to miss him,” said Ron Kuhlman, vice president of tourism marketing and sales. “I looked forward to an occasional lunch or cup of coffee with him just to talk about what’s going on.”

Ricketts hadn’t spent much time talking with co-workers about what he was going to do once he stepped down, but he planned to stay active on the Virginia Tourism Corp. board.

“It wouldn’t be like Jim to sit around and do nothing,” said Kuhlman, who worked with Ricketts for nearly 25 years.

Ricketts was known for making things happen.

He joined the tourism department in 1974 after several years in the Navy and working as assistant to the general manager of the Norfolk Port and Industrial Authority. Under his leadership, the Convention and Visitors Bureau flourished. In 2014, tourists spent $1.37 billion in the city, according to the visitors bureau.

“The evolution of Virginia Beach from a sleepy, summer beach town to a truly year-round, first-class destination is a testament to his strategic thinking,” Russell said.

Mayor Will Sessoms credited Ricketts with getting the city the convention center and the American Music Festival.

“For more than 40 years, Jim Ricketts was our leader when it came to tourism,” Sessoms said in a statement. “He championed the right projects. He advocated for the right focus on our destination marketing efforts. And he defined the right level of quality we needed to bring to the beach to grow into a year-round resort. Jim’s passing leaves a hole in the fabric of this community.”

Ricketts was “an intensely private individual,” Sessoms said, but he loved talking about the people he loved – his father, Adm. Claude V. Ricketts, and Jean, his wife of 30 years. He also enjoyed driving his Mustang convertible.

“He’d tell you that sometimes he would pick staff up in his beloved car and drive around the Oceanfront in place of regular meetings in a conference room or his office,” Sessoms said.

In his email, Hansen said he would walk every night with Ricketts in their neighborhood and discuss “how great it was to work for such a wonderful city.”

“There is comfort in knowing that Jim loved Virginia Beach and did exactly what he wanted to do every day of his career,” Hansen wrote. “And that was to bring people here to experience the Virginia Beach lifestyle and to have them fall in love with Virginia Beach as much as he did.”

A memorial service was held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

In addition to his wife, Ricketts is survived by a son and two daughters. Another son preceded him in death.