Jay Charles Holtzapple

Holtzapple, Jay Charles Jay passed away on 4/23/2012 at the age of 72, after a 6-year battle with stage 4 prostate cancer. He was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur Raymond and Martha Anne (Aeberli) Holtzapple. Jay is survived by his soul mate and partner of 38 years, Tom Leek; brother, Robert (Joan) Holtzapple of Simpsonville, SC; nephew, Mark (Carol) Holtzapple and their children John, Matthew and Michael of College Station, TX; niece, Wendy Holtzapple (Larry Olson) and their daughter Rose of Minneapolis; niece, Robin (Siros) Jabari of Laguna Niguel, CA, and their children Sarah and Bijan of Minneapolis; Erik Holtzapple of San Diego, CA; Tom's family of Amherst, MA and many dear friends. Jay majored in Music History and Literature and minored in performance (cello) at Ithaca College (NY) and the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, where he earned his BA and MA in music. He was a gifted cellist and studied with Peter Farrell while at university. After college, he worked as a freelance cellist and earned the position of principal cellist with the Harrisburg, (PA) Civic Symphony before he and Tom moved to Minneapolis in 1975. Jay was one of the founding members of the Edelweiß Trio that was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jay began working at the Minneapolis Public Library in 1985 in the Cataloging Department until he retired in 2006. He and Tom took a long-planned retirement trip to Amsterdam, Prague and Vienna; they remained in Vienna for four months. Jay was diagnosed with prostate cancer stage 4 in Sept. 2006 and, along with his oncology and urology teams, waged a heroic battle against the disease for 6 years. His team at MOHPA and Urology Associates deserve special recognition, starting with Dr. Stuart Bloom and his nurse Jaime Anderson, plus the entire chemotherapy infusion team. Also deserving special recognition is his urology team: Dr. Pratap Reddy and his nurse Heather Christie. Jay has been cremated; his final instruction to Tom was that there will be no memorial service. There will be a private family gathering sometime in June or July, and a separate gathering of friends about a week after the family gathering. The dates have not been set as yet. Following the two gatherings, Tom will follow the final step of Jay's wishes: he will take Jay's ashes to his favorite city in the world, Vienna, Austria, and scatter them in the mighty Danube River.