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A private memorial celebration of his life was on
May 6 at the family home in Camarillo, in the garden
he loved and cultivated faithfully in his
retirement.
Mr. Gayle came to Ventura County, Calif., to be a
part of the first faculty at Moorpark College, where
he started as chair of the Math and Science
Department. When he retired in 1988, he was vice
president for instruction. He had previously taught
mathematics and engineering at Bakersfield College
in California. Earlier in life he managed the family
stone business in Lincoln after his father died.
He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II.
Jim was born in Alton on Aug. 27, 1921, the son
of Robert E. and Mary Fitzmaurice Gayle. He married
Mary Redus in 1951.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years; three
sons, Robert R. "Rob" Gayle of Oakland-Piedmont,
Calif., William J. "Bill" Gayle (and Mary Dykhuizen)
of San Francisco and Richard C. Gayle (and Peggy
Buckwalter) of Spearfish, S.D.; three grandchildren,
Rob's daughter, Sarah E. Gayle of Shenzhen, China,
and Richard's children, William "Will" R. Gayle of
Piscataway, N.J., and Eleanor M. "Nell" Gayle of
Eugene, Ore.; one sister, Roberta Gayle Aplington of
LaSalle; 19 nieces and nephews, three of whom
resided with Jim and Mary for periods of time in the
1980s and are Anabel Bauman, Andrew Bauman and Clare
Aplington; and three cousins.
He was preceded in death by one sister, Helen
Gayle Bauman; one brother, William Rimerman Gayle; a
daughter-in-law, Mina Vijeh, who was Rob's wife; two
cousins; and two nephews.
Jim's ancestors had settled in Logan County in
the 1800s, and from the age of 3 years he lived in
Lincoln, where he attended grade school, high school
and Lincoln College.
In 1941, he received an appointment to the U.S.
Naval Academy, where he finished in three years as
part of the first "war" class of World War II. He
saw service aboard the USS Iowa in the Pacific
during the remainder of the war and was aboard the
Iowa, moored next to the Missouri, at the signing of
the Japanese surrender.
After the war he attended flight school in
Florida and Texas and was then assigned as a
congressional liaison officer in the Navy Bureau of
Personnel in Washington, D.C.
After his marriage, he and his wife lived in
Lincoln until he sold the family business in 1958.
With two sons at that time, Jim and Mary moved to
Indiana, where a third son was born as Jim pursued a
graduate degree in mathematics at Purdue University.
Upon completion of his degree, the family moved to
Bakersfield, Calif.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations
in Jim's name to the Friends of the Camarillo
Library, the American Heart Association, the
American Lung Association, the Multiple Sclerosis
Fund or Doctors Without Borders. |
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