Howard Jay Hassell M.D.

March 13, 1943 - July 28, 2015
Howard Jay Hassell, M.D., passed away unexpectedly early on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 72 years old.

Jay Hassell was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 13, 1943, to Howard Johannes Hassell and Mryth Allen Hassell, the third of four children.

From an early age, Jay was focused, inventive, and very determined. At five, he took orange crates and built and painted a nightstand with a drawer for his sister. At nine, he took up cello and became quite good on it. At 13, Jay masterminded a three-story treehouse fort that even included a skylight he could open to see the stars.

Jay liked to come home from junior high for lunch to practice basketball to make the team. It was about this time that he fell from his treehouse and broke both arms in three places. This provoked him to think seriously about the human body, medicine, and orthopedics for the first time.

It was in high school that everything seemed to come together for Jay. He was senior class president and excelled not only academically but in football, basketball, and track.

Those around Jay recognized his impressive traits of character. His 1961 descriptive East High School yearbook entry says this: "A worker who doesn't believe in words such as 'can't' or 'impossible.' His spirit of drive coupled with sincerity and leadership has presented the seniors with an incomparable year." This same spirit motivated him throughout his life. Jay graduated in June 1961.

Turning 19 in March 1962, Jay was eligible to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He accepted the call and spent two-and-a-half happy and very busy years in France as a missionary. His service included acting as an assistant to the mission president, the most responsible position to which a missionary can be called.

After his mission, Jay enrolled in the University of Utah's pre-medical program, graduating cum laude in 1969 with a B.A. He was accepted into Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to begin medical school in August 1970.

But by no means was that all that happened that August. Acceptance to Bowman Gray had come unexpectedly and very late, which thoroughly disrupted wedding plans. Jay had met and was engaged to Brenda Whitney. They had to move their wedding date up to Friday, August 28, after which they headed from Salt Lake City to Winston-Salem to begin medical school on Monday, August 31. Needless to say, the honeymoon was condensed.

Jay graduated in 1974 with the doctor of medicine degree, moving immediately into a year of rotating internship in Hartford, Connecticut, and then four years of residency in general orthopedics. During those four years, Jay served on the stake high council of the local L.D.S. church. Despite his almost impossibly heavy and frantic schedule as a medical resident, he missed only three high council meetings in the entire four years.

Following residency, Jay spent 1979 first as a fellow in sports injury surgery in Toronto, Canada, and then as an international fellow in the study of internal fixation in Bern, Switzerland. He soon was licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina, Idaho, Connecticut, Wyoming, andof coursein Texas.

Jay was like so many who have settled in Texas. He might not have been born a Texan, but he got here as fast as he could. He set up practice in San Antonio in August 1980 and practiced as an orthopedic surgeon there for his remaining 35 years. His emphases were arthroscopic surgery, sports injuries, joint replacement, spine surgery, and other general orthopedic and traumatic surgical techniques, including external and internal fixation. As a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians, and Board Certified by the American College of Forensic Examiners, Jay was superbly qualified technically in his chosen field.

We have seen something of how Jay served in his church with energy and distinction. This continued with even greater consequence in San Antonio, where he labored with great humility and effectiveness in a succession of calls to service: Bishop of the San Antonio 8th Ward (congregation), 1982-1987; President of the Switzerland Geneva Mission, 1987-1990; Bishop of the San Antonio Young Singles Ward, 1991-1996; Counselor in the San Antonio North Stake Presidency, 1996-1999; President of the San Antonio Texas North Stake, 1999-2009; and Patriarch in the San Antonio Texas North Stake, 2009-2015.

Jay is survived by Brenda Whitney Hassell, his wife; daughter Lana Hassell Mann (Justin); daughter Hilary Jeanne Hassell; son Hans Jacob Hassell; granddaughter Laura Mann; sister Cora-Beth Hassell Harmer; sister Marion Hassell Pack (Russell); brother Lewis Allen Hassell (Mary-Bliss); and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 1, at the San Antonio Texas North Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 645 Knights Cross, San Antonio, Texas 78258. Interment at Mission Burial Park North, 20900 I-10 West, will follow these services.

The family has asked that donations in lieu of flowers be made to the General Missionary Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This can be done online at https://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/
missionary.html or by using a donation envelope available by request at the funeral.

Jay Hassell was a man of rare character and substance. He frequently said, "Fill the full measure of your creation," a standard he encouraged, a standard he lived.