James Alan Fay, age 91, died peacefully on June 2, 2015, surrounded by his loving family.

Jay was born in Southold, Long Island, NY, on Nov. 1, 1923. He grew up in Brooklyn and received his bachelor of science degree from Webb Institute of Naval Architecture in 1944. He served in the U.S. Navy as an ensign during World War II. He married Agatha Kelly of Bronx, New York, in 1946. In 1947, he earned a master of science degree in marine engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Cornell University in 1951. Jay and Gay resided in Long Beach, CA; Boston, MA; Hamilton, OH; and Ithaca, NY, before settling in Weston, MA in 1956. Together, they raised a family of six children while Jay was a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

His research activities focused on air and water pollution problems, including the dispersion of air pollutants in the atmosphere, acid rain, the safety hazards of liquefied gases, renewable energy and the spread of oil and other hazardous liquids on the ocean. Early in his career, he conducted research on combustion and detonation, hypersonic heat transfer, magnetohydrodynamics, and plasmadynamics.

In addition to his duties at MIT, Professor Fay served as chairman of the Air Pollution Control Commission of the City of Boston from 1969 to 1972, and as chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority from 1972 to 1977, and served on 12 boards, committees and panels of the National Research Council, including two terms on the Environmental Studies Board. He was a founder and lifetime director of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, MA and former trustee of the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, MA. In addition, he was a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He published several textbooks and in 1980 he was an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University. In 1990, he was a Fulbright lecturer in India.

Jay was an avid sailor from a young age, sewing his first set of sails as a teenager from Egyptian cotton cloth he purchased in the Garment District in Manhattan. He and Gay spent many summers at their second home in Georgetown, Maine, where he also kept his Tartan 27, a boat that he cruised on from the Bay of Fundy to Florida. Summers in Maine were filled with visits from children, grandchildren, and eventually great-grandchildren. Jay was an extremely devoted husband and looked after Gay until she died in October 2012 from complications from Alzheimer’s.

He eventually resided at Newbury Court in Concord, MA, and spent time with his dear friend Audrey Briggs. He was active and busy up until the last couple of weeks of his life, when he ran into complications from Lymphoma. Jay was an optimistic man who believed strongly in education and provided support and encouragement for all his children and grandchildren with their college educations.

Jay is survived by his children and their spouses: David Fay and Roben Campbell of Harvard, MA and Georgetown ME, Mark Fay of Sandisfield, MA, Colin Fay and Stephanie Holmes of Brunswick, ME, Jamie and Maureen Fay of Ipswich, MA, Peter Fay and Sue DeRivera of Jamestown, RI, and Michele Fay and Tim Price of Ripton, VT; 18 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Barbara Johnston, of Portland, Maine.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend a memorial Mass of Christian burial for Jay on Saturday, June 13 at 10 a.m. at Saint Julia Church, 374 Boston Post Road in Weston, MA, to be followed by a celebration of his life at Biagio Ristorante at 123 Moody Street, Waltham.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers, MA. (www.caredimensions.org/K aplan_ House.aspx) or to the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, MA (www.ucsusa.org).

For guestbook and additional information please refer to www.BrascoFuneral- Home.com.