Jay Francis Snell was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Francis and Melva Snell on January 24, 1937 and grew up in Detroit. He went to Mackenzie High School and Wayne State University. He married Marion Carpenter in 1959. In 1964 he received his Masters in Engineering from the University of Michigan. Jay and Marion had three children between the years of 1965 and 1970: Kevin, Sarah and Trevor while living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jay worked in the University of Michigan Research labs on Infrared technology. In the early 1970s Jay was offered an engineering job at Tektronix in Beaverton, Oregon developing a series of Oscilloscopes, and so the family moved there in 1971. Several years later, Jay and Marion separated and eventually divorced. Jay was granted custody of his three children and took on all the responsibilities of a single father. During this time, he began to attend a Parents without Partners meeting for support, and there met his second wife, Marilee Currier, known by friends and family as "Mindy." Mindy had a 3 year old daughter, Gilaine. Jay and Mindy married in 1976 and raised their four children together. Shortly after the wedding, they decided to attend Beaverton Foursquare Church. This was their church home for the the rest of their lives.
Jay worked for Tektronix as an engineer and marketing manager until his 1995 retirement, primarily in Beaverton with the exception of serveral years in the mid 1980s when he worked from the Tektronix, Newport News, Virginia field office to get some sales experience.
At Beaverton Foursquare Church, Jay was active in teaching Sunday school, ushering, and later helping to coordinate the Prime Timers group, and the Handy Man program within Prime Timers which provided assistance elderly church members, especially widows who needed maintenance work done at home. This group remained an important part of Jay's support network until the end of his life.
Jay is survived by his 4 children and 4 grandchildren, Johanna, Evelyn, Ethan and Ali. In 2010 Mindy passed away from breast cancer. Jay, along with Mindy's sister, Gail were the primary caregivers until the time of her death. She passed away under the supervision of hospice at home. Jay continued to live in the same home until 2017 when he realized his increasing problems with mobility were making it unsafe for him to continue living in his home alone. At that time he moved to Creekside Village Retirement Residence where he resided until his death. While at Creekside he helped organize the Sunday Services, coordinating the volunteer pastors who would come to speak to the residents, until his declining memory began to interfere and he had to turn that over to Creekside staff. On September 22, 2019, Jay was admitted to the hospital due to a sharp decline in strength, mobility and memory problems and passed away in a hospice care facility on the evening of September 29, a week later.
Jay will be remembered for his strong faith, loyalty, winning sense of humor and admirable work ethic. His memory will live on in his children, grandchildren and friends who were privileged to walk the path of life with him.
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