Harry Bay

Harry Irving Bay, 100, passed away at Beach House Assisted Living in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, on April 16, 2015. Mr. Bay was born in a small town near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on December 26, 1914, one of ten children of Samuel Leon Bay and Esphira Shapira Bay. In his late teens and twenties he traveled extensively by motorcycle and train throughout the United States, working a variety of odd jobs. He also learned to fly, and in his early thirties became a pilot for National Airlines, where he met his beloved wife of 64 years, the late Elizabeth (“Betty”) Merriam, a flight attendant from Montclair, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Bay were married on April 4, 1948, in Jacksonville, and he continued to work as an airline pilot for a number of years while starting a wholesale electronics business in his garage. When the business, named The Bay Company, grew, Mr. Bay left National Airlines to run it full time with his wife. He had a lifelong love of airplanes, flying, and travel, and took his family all over North America in small planes. He was also an avid investor who had a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade for several years; he was interested in health and physical fitness and exercised throughout his life. In his sixties, Mr. Bay purchased a Mooney 21 airplane, and in his late seventies, he retired from operating his business to devote more time to managing his investments and flying. His wife Betty was a professional model, and Mr. Bay appeared with her in a number of print advertisements and television commercials, many of which are still in circulation throughout the U.S. He continued to fly his plane into his eighties, and drove a white Corvette with a red leather interior until his late nineties. Mr. Bay is survived by his son William F. (“Bill”) Bay and daughter-in-law Nina Haucke Bay of Jacksonville, his daughter Christine Bay Fisher and son-in-law Paul E. Fisher of Chicago, and by his sister Eve (Bay) Rosove of Los Angeles. A private service will be held at a later date. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Jacksonville Humane Society, 8464 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville, Florida 32216, website: www.jaxhumane.org/how-to-help/donate.aspx .