FALL RIVER — Jim Soule, the longtime president of the Preservation Society of Fall River and a champion of the city’s history, died Tuesday at home surrounded by family after battling cancer. He was 59.

Soule was born in Bridgewater and relocated to Fall River in the late 1980s when he married his wife, Connie. They restored a historic home they purchased at 577 Rock St., a project that led to his re-establishing the city’s defunct Preservation Society.

The nonprofit group, incorporated in the mid-2000s, became an advocate for saving historic Fall River properties destined for the wrecking ball like the Central Congregational Church. Soule urged passage of the Community Preservation Act, setting aside funds for historic preservation and housing development, and the creation of Fall River’s only protected historic district in the Highlands.

Read more from Dan Medeiros at heraldnews.com.