James R. Dire earned two bachelors degrees at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, one in chemistry and the other with a double major in physics and mathematics. He went on to earn a masters degree in physics from the University of Central Florida and a PhD in planetary sciences from The Johns Hopkins University. Dire photographed his first solar eclipse in 1979 and has seen and photographed more than a dozen central solar eclipses since, as well as numerous partial solar eclipses. Many of those images appear on his website. Dire taught physics and astronomy at the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. After leaving the Coast Guard, he served as an associate provost, a vice chancellor for academic affairs, and a college chancellor at institutions in North Carolina, Hawaii and Illinois.

Dire's research interest has been in the atmospheres of planets and moons. He did his PhD dissertation on the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. Dire has been active with amateur astronomers for many years and has been or currently is a member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, the Central Florida Astronomical Society, the Baltimore Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of New Haven, the Thames Amateur Astronomical Society (CT), the Cleveland County Astronomical Society (NC), the Peoria Astronomical Society (IL), the Tristate Astronomers (MD), and the Kauai Educational Association for Science and Astronomy (HI).

Dire is in his second decade authoring a deep space column in the Astronomical Society's Reflector Magazine. Also since 2009, he has reviewed telescope hardware and software for Astronomy Technology Today. He is a leading expert on telescope equipment and astroimaging, giving frequent talks across the country on those topics.

Dr. Dire has led numerous solar eclipse tours across the globe including such places as Zambia, Turkey, China, Iceland, and Argentina. In 1998, he co-led a 610 person tour to the February 26 solar eclipse in Aruba. This may still be the largest land-based eclipse expedition to date. On these tours, Dire gives talks on eclipses and how to observe and photograph them and assists tour members getting the maximum enjoyment for the event.