Daniel LaMar Christy, Jr. (Jay) '40
Deceased November 11, 2006
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In Memory
The Class will be saddened to learn that Jay Christy, aged eighty-eight, died on November 11, 2006. The Class joins in sending his family our sorrowful best wishes.
Majoring in economics was a small hint of many skills and interests Jay displayed in a long and useful life. Starting in college as a multi-talented athlete, he was most visible as a diver.
At swim meets, we loved to applaud his lithe body lifting from the board, arcing through the air to a meticulous entry into the water.
He worked hard at the singing he made his own in college and loved for the rest of his life. Jay thoroughly enjoyed being choregus. He worked hard in presiding over many a musical feast in college and at Reunions. As choregus, he also sang with the Double Quartet, which he did with charm and éclat.
He was a member of Beta Theta Pi, a former Class officer and an active volunteer whose positive spirit contributed much to the success of Reunions and mini-reunions over the many years following graduation.
His life, after five years of service in the army in WWII, saw him blossom as a successful entrepreneur. Starting on the foundation of his family enterprises, Jay set up his own companies in Fremont, OH, his hometown, and in Phoenix, AZ; he became a leading manufacturer of specialized equipment for the baking industry.
Married twice, Jay was divorced from Joan Walmsley, a Smith graduate, whom he married in 1941 and with whom he had four children. He married Marian H. Zink in 1968; she died in 2005.
Survivors include a younger brother and sister, four children, eleven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
—Louis P. Dolbeare ’40