Jay William Gould

Dr. Jay William Gould III 30 October 1930 -15 June 2018 Resided in Springfield, Virginia Dr. Jay Gould was born in Glencoe, Minnesota, the son of Jay W. Gould Jr. and Alyce Ruby Chase; members of the family owned Gould’s Million Dollar Circus. He grew up performing in various circus song and dance acts in the circus. Following graduation from Edison High School in 1948, he entered The United States Military Academy with the Class of 1954. In his senior year Jay received national notice as a member of the Cheerleaders Squad with the theft of Annapolis’ football mascot, an angora goat, which was intended to be returned at the 1953 Army-Navy football game. That was not to be, however, because President Eisenhower ordered its immediate return to Annapolis prior to the game. “Ike” was bending to great pressure from the Washington Admirals. Jay also had another first, the creation of the Army “Victory Cannon”, fired after every touchdown by the football team. That tradition has now been adopted by numerous universities across the nation. Think of Jay when you hear a cannon fired at a football game. It was his idea. Following graduation Jay entered the Air Defense Artillery branch of service and reported in 1955 for duty at Ft. Bliss, TX. By 1957, however, Jay had developed a great interest in the fields of aerospace and missiles. This prompted his resignation from the Army as a 1st Lieutenant and his entry into a Defense Industry that was aggressively following in the footsteps of the German rocket scientist, Werner von Braun. Over the next three decades Jay established and built his missile expertise with several large aerospace companies including: the Martin Co. with the Titan I, Titan II, and Gemini programs; Honeywell with the Apollo; 3M with the SNAP program and the Apollo Space Labs. Jay obtained three US Patents in his travels. He rejoined DOD in 1985 for the deployment of the “Peacemaker” ICBM as a Program Manager, and also became a protégé of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. He then taught Deming’s “Quality Theory” at the Ft. Belvoir Defense Management College. Jay was certified in five different career fields: Program Management; Systems Engineering; Science and Technology; Test and Evaluation; and Manufacturing Management. Jay retired in 2012 with 34 years of DOD programs service. His many awards include Commendations from Secretary Cohen of the Dept of Defense and Secretary Udall of the Interior Dept; the Superior Civilian Service Award; the Space Pioneer Award; and his high school’s appointment to their Distinguished Graduate Hall of Fame. Jay passed away peacefully at the Virginia Hospital Center on Friday the fifteenth of June, surrounded by his loving wife May Lum. His only living sibling is a sister Roxanne Argen of Oklahoma. His surviving children are sons Richard, Jason, Shreve, and Dixon, and a daughter Alyse Marx. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his brothers David and Richard Dwight Gould. A memorial service will be held at Jay’s Parish at a time to be determined. Jay will be interred at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers please remember Jay with donations to his Anglican Catholic Parish, in which he was very active, St. Andrew and St. Margaret of Scotland, 1607 Dewitt Avenue, Alexandria VA 22301.