Born in New York on December 10, 1931, he was a son of Mr. and Mrs. John J. LickDyke (Helen Carey). His father was executive vice president of Barrett Textiles in New York. During World War II, he lived with his family in Maryland, but regularly traveled by train with his brother to visit their grandparents in Brooklyn, to which his family had strong ties. Former New York governor Hugh Carey was a close friend of Mr. LickDyke’s mother.

 

An accomplished athlete as well as a gifted artist, Jay played football on his high school team, which won the city championship in 1949. Upon graduation, he declined a full scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and, opting instead to take a sabbatical from academia, indulging another longtime interest and a yen for adventure, joined the merchant marine. He shipped out on tankers as a certified seaman and proved himself an adept mariner, quickly picking up the requisite skills and often taking the ship’s wheel. Upon returning from a long voyage in 1952, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned high-speed code work, for which his experience with the Morse code at sea had prepared him. Subsequently transferred to Arlington Hall, where the Army Security Agency—the U.S. Army’s signal intelligence branch charged with monitoring foreign military communications under the operational control of the National Security Agency—was based, he was granted the highest security clearance. As a military policeman, he escorted generals to Korea, where he was wounded.

 

After being discharged from military service in 1955, Jay completed his education at St. Bonaventure University, graduating in 1958, and secured a position with the New York Times. There he was assigned to the city desk and assisted the religion editor as a reporter for about a year. He then entered the world of finance, working at several investment banking and brokerage firms—Hornblower and Weeks, Clark Dodge and Company (where he made junior partner in 1961), Kidder Peabody (as a vice president), and Gruntal and Company (as a vice president). In 1994, following his marriage to Priscilla Cunningham, an art historian, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Southampton, he moved from Boston to New York and joined Ingalls and Snyder.

 

A talented artist, many of whose watercolors featured seascapes, Jay was also an accomplished carpenter, a voracious reader, witty conversationalist, excellent cook, and a devoted family man who will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Having survived Hodgkins lymphoma and open-heart surgery, Mr. LickDyke suffered a bad fall and was eventually bedridden, but continued to receive care at home until the end came. 

 

Survivors include Jay’s wife, Priscilla; a daughter, Mrs. Garry Morrissette (Sarah Jayne LickDyke); sisters Helene LickDyke and Suzanne Varney; brother Brian LickDyke; granddaughters Laura and Kyra Morrissette; three step-grandsons; a stepson; and six nephews. He was predeceased by his wife Loretta (née Hurley) in 1992 and his son, Christopher, in 1987.