Retired Navy officer Jay Quick can't slow down

By Colin Rigley

Email this story | Print this story

Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 10:18 AM CDT

Retired Navy Officer Jay Quick lives in Angels Camp. Enterprise photo by Colin Rigley

Jay Quick is now a retired Navy commander. His career in the Navy took him around the world and, finally, back to the Mother Lode.

A jack of all trades, hehas settled in Calaveras County with his wife Clayre for nearly 30 years � at least as much as Quick can settle.

Quick was born on Dec. 11, 1930, in Philadelphia, “way before calendars,” as he put it. He joined the Navy in 1953, where he stayed for the next 26 years.

Quick attended, on a full scholarship, the University of South Carolina, where he studied political science.

“My idea was �I’ll do my three years in the Navy, I’ll get out and then I’m going to go to law school,’” Quick said.

Those preconceptions quickly changed after he was sent to Naples, Italy, to be a boat officer on a command flag ship. It was then that Quick got a taste of Navy life and decided to become a “lifer.”

Quick spent the next year and a half in Naples, then went to air controller school in Glenview, Ill., and went back to the field for two tours in Korea as an air controller.

“Then, when I thought I’d just about had enough field duty, I was selected to go to the Navy post-graduate school in Monterey and I became a meteorologist,” Quick said.

With his newly-acquired meteorology degree, Quick went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, as a hurricane forecaster. He recalled that one of his most exciting memories during that time was getting the chance to ride a “hurricane hunter,” a plane designed to study hurricanes by passing through the eye of the storm.

Quick spent two years in Puerto Rico, then went to The Armed Forces Staff College in Virginia. He was shipped across the globe again to the Panama Canal Zone as an intelligence officer for three years.

He finished his overseas military career in Vietnam and Cambodia. Over the course of his stay in the Navy, Quick earned numerous medals, including two air medals.

Quick was offered a job at the Pentagon after his field service, but turned it down to go home and be with his family.

After traveling the world in the Navy, Quick returned to the states to pursue photography. He bought his first house in Napa, but said it was “too busy” and “too fast.” He worked as a freelance photographer for the The Napa Valley Register for three years and taught a photography class at Napa Valley College until 1978, when he retired.

Four years earlier, however, he moved his family to Murphys.

Quick said he loved camping in Calaveras County, a love that prompted him to move here. In order to coax his daughter to give up her high school friends in Napa and make the move, Quick promised to buy her a horse. She agreed and they moved to a 10-acre lot in Murphys, where they had two horses.

Quick commuted to Napa Valley to teach. He had a Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday night class; so he would drive into Napa and stay for the weekend.

During that time Quick was also taking still photos for a local Calaveras TV shoot, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”

Quick had little rest time in those days, “I’d get home and my wife said �Don’t get undressed,’” as she reminded him of a photo shoot he still had to do.

Quick has one daughter and a granddaughter. He and his wife Clayre have been married for almost 50 years. He is 76.

“When I reach 80 I’m going to skydive, and I’m going to make it, too,” Quick said.

Quick now keeps his travels mostly within one country; he and his wife enjoy traveling to see sites in the U.S.

He currently lives in Angels Camp, but Quick has never completely retired. He has worked a number of jobs in Calaveras County, and now works two mornings a week at the Gateway Press printing company.

“My wife says it keeps me away from the computer at least two mornings a week,” Quick said when asked whether he would ever completely retire.

He is a founding member of the Angels Camp Centennial Rotary Club and maintains its Web site, judged the best in a Rotary district that spans California, Nevada and Hawaii.

Quick describes himself as a newspaper fanatic, and truthfully so. He and his wife subscribe to five area newspapers. “I’m a newspaper nut,” Quick said.

Never one to be knocked down, Quick survived major heart surgery, which caused him to lose 40 pounds. He said the surgery was a blessing in disguise as it helped him lose weight and gave him the motivation to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Quick explained that food will always be his vice, “I’m a person that loves to eat � When we went back to Virginia, I ate every crab cake in Virginia,” Quick said.

Contact Colin Rigley at crigley@calaverasenterprise.com.

Comment (No comments posted.)

Comments are posted after review by the Web master. They represent the opinion of the commenting party. While we encourage them as a way to further community discussion of important public topics, we reserve the right to reject or edit them.

How do I find my comments later? Articles change daily on our Web site. Please make a note of the title of the article you have commented on. If you wish to read other people comments, once the article is taken down, do an archive search by title to locate the comments that apply to that story. We appreciate your comments and participation on our Web site.

Please refrain from attaching links that go to unrelated sites as these will not be posted.
In order to post comments you will also need to provide your full name and the city or town of your mailing address (such as "Murphys, CA.")in the boxes below.

We are requiring the same information for internet postings as letters to the editor in the Enterprise to ensure that each writer takes personal responsibility for what they say in this public forum.

The Calaveras Enterprise is not responsible for statements, advice or opinions offered by anyone other than authorized Calaveras Enterprise spokespersons.

Comments are limited to 200 words or less.