Joanne Frye Nay passed away early in her eighty-fourth year from complications of dementia. She was the oldest of four children of Albert and Ruby Frye, born in Los Angeles and educated initially in La Habra and then at Stanford. Following a junior year in Berlin, she graduated in 1958, the first female student to obtain a degree in industrial engineering at Stanford. The following year she married Paul Nay. Over the subsequent years she maintained a growing family, and was employed as an industrial engineer at Ampex and then at Josten’s in Porterville, California where she had increasing responsibilities and ultimately become chief engineer. Both she and her husband, a psychology professor at Porterville College, retired in 1997 and then moved in 1999 to Santa Barbara, joining the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, where Joanne served on the church board for several years. She also found a new talent, creating a number of fused-glass works at Santa Barbara City College. Her interests ranged widely throughout her life, encompassing multicultural activities especially involving women, not only in her professional field as a member of the Society of Women Engineers, but in more distant areas, through travels and Earthwatch expeditions. While in Porterville she served for five years on the Tulare County Commission on the Status of Women. A tragedy late in her life was the death of Kevin, the oldest of her three sons.
She is survived by her husband Paul Nay, brother George Frye and sisters Judy Roos and Jackie Afram, sons Steve and John Nay, and grandsons Ian and Andrew Nay. There will be a Celebration of Life for her at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, 1535 Santa Barbara Street, 3:00 PM Sunday, March 3. Contributions in her name to the Alzheimer’s Association or other groups fighting dementia would be welcome and appropriate.
