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Show UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Jay had a larger vision for his and the library’s role at the Society, which included collecting documents, expanding service, the education of those who would use the library, and giving greater attention to history groups and organizations throughout the state. To assist in that mission, Jay set up an “Oral History Program,” which interviewed hundreds of people so that their histories would be preserved and made accessible. Secondly, he organized the state’s Geographic and Place Names Association, which collected data and educated the public and historians about that facet of Utah history. He would also help organize the Intermountain Archivists Association, which provided education services for the professional care and use of their documents, and for making them readily available to researchers who used these repositories. He helped organize the Utah Historic Trails Consortium to help understand, interpret, and preserve the trails that have been important in Utah’s past. Jay’s penchant for marshaling all of the Utah history resources he could led him to move forward in organizing the Association of Utah Historians consisting of the staff at the Historical Society, public school teachers teaching Utah history, and professional historians at the various colleges, universities, and organizations in the state. Direct dividends of these organizational efforts were extensive. First off, with the celebration of the United States Bicentennial in 1976, Jay worked to secure the selection of Charles S. Peterson as the author of the Utah volume in the States and the Nation Series prepared under the direction of the American Association for State and Local History. With the Utah Statehood Centennial Celebration in 1996, Jay directed the compilation and publication of Utah: The Right Place, a one-volume history of Utah written by Thomas G. Alexander. It was his vision and involvement that led to the compilation of the twenty-nine volume Utah Centennial County History series as an important legacy of Utah’s centennial celebration in honor of Utah becoming the forty-fifth state. Jay was also given administrative assignments as acting director of the Society in 1985 and 1986. His tenure at the Society came to an end with his retirement in 1998. He faced the long-term challenges of type I diabetes. He apprised colleagues of possible symptoms of troubles, but in my more than twenty years of working with him, only once did we need to intervene, using information he made certain we had been given. Jay was a mentor to younger members of the staff by encouraging them to further their research and study of Utah history. He believed that every community and group should actively engage its history with the best tools and resources available. Upon retirement, Jay and his wife Pat continued to live in Salt Lake City; however, when their daughter Lise and her husband Mark Hansen moved to Illinois, they chose to follow. Pat died in 2003. Jay moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and then to Boise, Idaho, choosing to remain close to family. 188 |
