John Clay

John Parley Clay

March 1, 1935 - November 8, 2015

Loving husband, father and grandfather passed from this life to the next on Sunday, November 8, 2015, at Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, Utah. .

John was born on March 1, 1935, to George Phillips Clay and Dorothy Anna Cliff Clay in Bountiful, Utah.  He is survived by his wife, Lucille Suzanne Petree Clay and sons Dennis Lynn (Stacey) Clay, John Charles (Katrine) Clay, Phillip E. (Amy) Clay, James Owen (Merilee) Clay, stepdaughter Linda Ann Foye Foster (John) Ellsworth, stepson Michael Hinckley (Kaye) Foster, and 21 grandchildren.  He was preceded in death by his second wife, Martha Ann Caswell Clay.

He was a missionary in the Central States Mission, after which he graduated in Physics at Brigham Young University.  On graduation he married his first wife, Laverna Charlene Eveson, and joined the Marine Corps as a 1st Lieutenant.  After his service he earned a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.  He later moved with his family to San Diego where he got a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of California San Diego.

John Clay was an engineer's engineer who only used HP calculators, two of which are on his desk now. After his Ph.D. he worked at Penn State, then for the Navy, and then moved to California to do environmental engineering.  He retired from Lawrence Livermore Laboratories where he was a rocket scientist, after which he pursued his dreams of making diamonds, studying Mayans, and building a dome house.

He will be missed by many and forgotten by few.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am, on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at Lindquist’s Bountiful Mortuary, 727 N. 400 E., where friends may visit family from 10-10:45 am prior to services.  Interment Bountiful City Cemetery.