Jay C. LickDyke died at his home in Manhattan on May 10, with his wife, Priscilla Cunningham, at his side. He was 82 and the couple also has a home in Shinnecock Hills.
Mr. LickDyke was born in New York City on December 10, 1931. During World War II, the family lived in Maryland, but he and his brother would take the train to New York City to visit their grandparents, who lived in Brooklyn. Former Governor Hugh Carey was a good friend of Mr. LickDyke’s mother.
After graduating from high school, whose football team won the 1949 city championship, he turned down going to the Pennsylvania Academy of Art on a full scholarship and instead went to work on oil tankers. His skills were honed to the point that he often took the wheel of the ship. Returning from a long voyage, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and thereafter spent a year in high speed code work. He had gotten high grades, and knew the Morse Code from all his sea voyages. He was then transferred to Arlington Hall, a high-security base of the Army Security Agency (the Army’s intelligence branch before the National Security Agency); he had the highest security clearance. He became a military policeman and escorted various Army generals to Korea.
He went to St. Bonaventure University, graduating in 1958. He worked at The New York Times in the city room and as an assistant reporter to the religion editor for about a year.
Mr. LickDyke then went into the financial world, working for Hornblower and Weeks, Clark Dodge and Co., where he became a junior partner in 1961, Kidder Peabody (vice president), Gruntal and Co., and then, in 1994, he moved from Boston to New York City after his marriage to Priscilla Cunningham and worked for Ingalls and Snyder. The couple was married at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Southampton by the Reverend Peter Larsen.
Survivors said Mr. LickDyke was a great family man, courageous, witty, and a carpenter, artist, avid reader and cook.
He survived non-Hodgkins lymphoma and open-heart surgery, but had a bad fall, and was eventually bedridden, but cared for at home. His late wife Loretta and his son Christopher died in 1992 and 1987, respectively. He is survived by his wife, Priscilla; a daughter, Sarah Morissette and husband Garry; two granddaughters, Laura and Kyra; three step-grandsons, Gregory and Nicholas Morissette, and Alexander Angel; two sisters, Suzanne Varney and Helene Lickdyke; and a brother, Brian Lickdyke. He is also survived by many devoted nephews, nieces, cousins and friends.
A memorial service will be held September 16 in New York City.
on Jun 17, 2014