Jay died May 21, 2010, in Devon, Pa.
Born in Abington, Pa., Jay prepared for Princeton at Abington High School and The Hill School, where he played football and basketball. He continued his football career at Princeton, playing freshman, JV, and 150-pound football, where his quarterback prowess carried him to the All-East team. He majored in economics, drilled with Navy ROTC, and served as vice president of Cottage Club.
Following graduation and two years of Navy service, Jay joined the sales force of Procter & Gamble, where he worked for three years before heading to Harvard for an M.B.A. He then returned to sales, working for Acme Markets and Cole National. In 1972, Jay and his brother bought White Cap, a small regional company selling consumer products through grocery stores. Within a decade the brothers, assisted by classmate David McMullin, had turned White Cap into a national business.
Sadness entered Jay’s life in 2006 when Ann, his wife of 37 years, died of cancer. Happiness returned later in 2007 when he remarried into a union that Jay termed “a large merger” — since he and Christina, his second wife, joined forces to create a family of nine children and 18 grandchildren, all of whom survive him, and to whom we have sent condolences.