Thomas Davidson Kay

Thomas Davidson Kay, beloved by his wife, son, and grandchildren, passed away peacefully in his bed on August 16th, 2023, surrounded by his family. He was 95. Tom was known for his generosity, easy laugh, curious nature, and a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of such diverse fields as mid-century automobiles, airplane designs of all types, and the history of British monarchs. He will be missed by family and friends who remember him as a gregarious and welcoming man who was always ready with a smile, a story, or a joke with an often mis-remembered punchline.

Tom was born in 1928 in Port Chester, New York, to parents who had recently immigrated from Mauchline, Scotland. His father, Robert, worked variously as a New York City cab driver, an auto mechanic with his own small shop, and a chauffeur for a wealthy family in Connecticut where the man of the house would "circle the estate in his airplane" as a signal that he would soon need a pickup at the airstrip. Tom absorbed this whole world of his father's and many of its features appear again in his own life. By his teens the family had moved to Akron, Ohio, where Tom enrolled at a vocational high school in an aviation mechanics program. After deciding against aircraft repair because he realized "those guys work outside - in the cold!" he became an apprentice at Goodyear Tire and Rubber, finishing his high school diploma at Goodyear Industrial University.

In 1946 he became "subject to the draft" but because Japan had surrendered a few months earlier, he was stationed on haphazard and sometimes ridiculous assignments in Hawaii, and the South Pacific Islands of Los Negros and Guam. In Los Negros he was tasked as ground support for the Air Force who were "photographing islands in case the war started again" and for Tom this meant working as a refrigeration mechanic, which included taking care of "the officers' ice-cream maker...those parachute maintenance men especially loved ice-cream." One of his assignments in Guam involved driving a truck at night to apprehend officers who would steal supplies in order to build their own houses on the island. Tom rarely used the word "hate" but he did say he hated hunting down and confronting those officers.

Eventually Tom returned to the States and enrolled at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he earned a bachelors degree and began a masters program. Common friends introduced him to his future bride, Marion Kimball (now Marion Kay), a public school art teacher, who still survives him today after over 60 years of marriage. Through connections in the faculty at Wayne State, Tom interviewed and was hired at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California, where he later finished his graduate degree. Tom and Marion were married at her sister's house in Michigan before making their trek across the country to San Luis Obispo where they soon helped design and build their own house near campus. For years, Tom would bike to his lectures. In 1969 they had their only child, Brian Kay. Tom taught for 33 years at Cal Poly, finishing his career as a professor of Engineering Technology.

Tom lived much of his life at the intersection of mechanics, machine shops, and welding, but also higher eduction, faculty life, and through the influence of Marion, the arts. Tom therefore saw himself very much as a blue-collar "working man" and disliked any form of elitism, yet at the same time he highly valued formal education, books, classical music, and travel. For these reasons he could relate to almost anyone, and had friends from all walks of life. In California he became an avid private pilot, flying a Cessna 170 that he co-owned with a small flying club in San Luis Obispo. Tom and Marion loved to travel, and would take advantage of summer breaks with trips to Europe and the East Coast with their son Brian. He increasingly became interested in his Scottish genealogy, and made several trips back to Mauchline. Late in retirement, Tom and Marion followed Brian and his family to the San Francisco Bay Area, settling into the city of Walnut Creek for the last ten years of his life where he enjoyed the company of his growing flock of grandchildren.

Tom is survived by his wife Marion, son Brian, daughter-in-law Emily, and grandchildren Willa (19), Henry (15), and Miles (10). His light, laughter, and great stories will be missed by all.