JAY GIBSON, class of 1955, died May 25, 2008.
Phil Berns writes -- Joan said he was not in pain--it was a long illness but up until recently he and Joan were able to travel and enjoy life!! I spoke to him just last week and after the usual exchange of medical reports which dominate our existence at our ages (Jay was 78) we got back to the usual exchange of bad jokes and irreverent "one liners". For years our major disagreement was who was the straight man!
I first "really" met Jay on our first cruise when we were celebrating our first assignment to L Division and the mess hall and we were volunteered by the upper classman Division leader to grind the garbage. As happens when an Irishman and a Jew get together and there's no whiskey or Manischewitz available we spent a lot of time between garbage pails discussing our philosophy of life. We enjoyed it so much and, also, having concluded that the assignment fit us perfectly, when we were later assigned for another stint with the L Division that he and I volunteered for the garbage grinding!
This evolved into a lifelong friendship, thousands of bad jokes, and his acting as best man at my wedding!! So for all the sadness that I feel about his death the memory that will stick with me is that of that open-faced, garrulous Irishman with the red hair and a face that replicated the map of Ireland--and his white yarmulke!
I'll miss him."
FMSAA