Jay finished country school in 1904 and took 8th grade exams in1905. He suffered prolonged periods of illness with rheumaticfever between 1904 and 1916 and again in 1922. He attendedschool at Fremont Normal School at Fremont, Nebraska for 17weeks in 1907-08, 37 weeks in 1908-9; 48 weeks 1909-10 and hefinished scientific course in August 1910. In the school year1910-11 he taught in a one-room school at St. Helena, Nebraska.In that year he also took the Nebraska teacher's exam for a lifecertificate. From September 1911 until April 1912 Jay took hisFreshman year at Iowa State College in Ames. In April 1912 hequit college and returned home because his brothers Wallace andDan were injured in a farm accident. He worked on the home farmuntil September 1913 and during the 1912-1913 school year hetaught at the same school he and his brothers and sistersattended and at which his mother taught. He returned to collegeat Ames in September 1913, completing work for a B.S. inAgronomy in January 1916. He taught at Cedar Rapids High Schoolfrom January to May in 1916 and helped with the ISC Farm Mag'tSurvey during the summer of 1916. He returned to I.S.C. in June1916 to work for a M.S. degree in Farm Management and to assistteaching Farm Management courses. In June 1917 he went toWashington D.C. with a civil service appointment in the U.S.D.A.Office of Farm Management. On May 29, 1918 he married EdithDruscilla Whitney in Ames, Iowa on the same day he received aMaster's Degree in Farm Management and Edith received herBachelor's Degree in Home Economics. From July 1918 to May 1919Jay served in the infantry, mostly in France and Germany. Helater proudly claimed that civilians he encountered in Europereferred to him as the non-soldier who was, for some unknownreason, wearing a uniform and traveling with the army. Jay wasill when he was discharged from the army. From May 1919 untilOctober 1920 he did field work for the U.S.D.A. in the Midwest.He was asked to resign because of illness and did so withoutprotest. From October 1920 to January 1921 he was out of workand helped at his father's farm. From January 1921 to April 1922he had a Farm Accts Route in Shelby Co. Iowa but becameseriously ill and had to resign. From May 1922 to January 1924he was a hired hand for his brother Theodore on the home farm.From September 1924 to September 1925 he worked for a localpaper while continuing to work as a hired hand on the farm. InSeptember 1925 he bought an 80 acre farm near Lewis in CassCounty, Iowa which he farmed for a while. In the spring of 1926he moved to Des Moines, Iowa and worked as an assistant editorfor the Wallace's Farmer magazine. When the depression came in1929 his job was reduced to part time and later eliminated. Jaybought 80 acres in Warren County, Iowa between Indianola andAckworth and he farmed full time from September 1931 to 1936.During this time daughters Bertha and May Alice attended theOgden one- room school and the family started attending theAckworth Friends Chruch. From January 1937 throught Septmeber1945 Jay worked as field man for the Program Surveys of theU.S.D.A., traveling constantly in the MidWest, sampling farmeropinion of the action programs. "Home" was on the farm most ofthe time until the fall of 1943 when the family moved to Ames.In October 1945 Jay transferred to the R.E.A. (RuaralElectrification Administration) and lived in Washington D.C.,doing field work each summer and fall in almost every part ofthe U.S. After their daughters married in 1946, Bertha in Juneand Mary Alice in September, and Edith and Jay made their homein Washington during the winter and spring and Edith returned tothe MidWest each summer and fall while Jay did field work. Inorder to qualify for a Social Security pension in addition tohis meager Federal pension Jay resigned in May 1951 from hisgovernment job and took a job until July 1953 with KrambeckHatchery and Feed Store in Clinton, Iowa. From 1953 until 1957Jay and Edith took a number of trips and moved around quite abit, living for a while in Kansas and Indianola, Iowa and alsooff and on with daughter Mary Alice Whitson Harvey's home inMinnesota. In 1957 Jay and Edith moved in with Harvey's in theirnew home in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Edith died in 1962. The lastfew years of his life Jay lived in the Mayflower Home inGrinnell, Iowa.