He followed his father, John ’43, to Princeton from Phillips Exeter, where he played varsity lacrosse and was vice commodore of the Yacht Club. At Princeton, Jay majored in English, wrote his thesis on Laurence Sterne’s Tristam Shandy, belonged to Charter, roomed at 231 1939 Hall, played freshman lacrosse, and volunteered with the Friends of McCormick Art Museum.
After graduation, Jay was a lieutenant in the Navy from 1967 to 1969 including time in Vietnam’s Tonkin Gulf and the western Pacific. He married his first wife, Marie Sears Gardiner West. They had three sons: Timothy, John, and Adrian before she was tragically killed in an automobile accident two months after our 10th reunion. Four years later he married second wife, Judy Kaster West, in October 1981, and added a fourth son, James, and three stepchildren to the West family.
After his Navy career, Jay began working for Master Plan Associates in San Francisco. His experience motivated his entrepreneurial desires. He moved to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, to create his own company, Gardens West, specializing in engineering, community design and development, swimming pool construction, and high-end custom design and construction of landscaping projects for home and business clients. He won many California Landscape Competition Awards, Civic Citations, and industry recognition across northern California. He served on the board of directors of the California Landscape Contractors Association, and as a volunteer for the County Regional Occupation Program and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma County.
Jay suffered for 25 years from a rare neurological disease that affected his hands, severely limiting their use. He was a truly exemplary and wise classmate.