Jay McBride

Our loving brother, father, and friend, Jay Clare McBride passed away on May 15, 2019 after a courageous battle with cancer. Jay was born September 1, 1952 in Arco, Idaho to Margaret and Clarence McBride.  He was brought home to join two sisters, Rena and Margie.  Later two sisters, Jana and Joan, and a brother, Jerry joined the family. Jay was so happy to have a little brother instead of another "icky" sister. It seems like when we visited cousins, he always had plenty of girl cousins close to his age and four sisters, so I guess that was appropriate.  Jay went to Arco Elementary and graduated from Butte High in 1970.

While attending Butte High School, Jay was able to be a part of the basketball team and traveled with them as the statistician.  He also competed with other schools on the high school Mathletes team.

Jay had some great friends that he took motorcycle trips with in the summer while in high school.  Mom started worrying from the minute they started planning their trips until they returned home safely. They had it all worked out that one of the boys would call their mom each night.  Then each mom would take their turn calling all the other moms to let them know they were stopping for the night and were safe.  Obviously, this was way before the days of cell phones and long distance phone calls were expensive.

After graduation from high school, Jay went to Idaho State University and then went on a mission to the France- Belgium mission for two years.  While there he served as District Leader and Branch President. He continued his missionary work throughout his life.  It seems as most places he lived, he was called as a ward or stake missionary.  When Jay returned, he again attended Idaho State University.  He studied Integrated Circuit Design.  He finished his studies 4 weeks earlier than most students.  That began his career as an Integrated Circuit Designer.

While attending Idaho State, Jay met Sandy Fowler.  They were married January 10, 1975 in the Idaho Falls Temple.  They had four children, Jason, Anjilyn, Jacob, and Jordan.  They lived in Pocatello, Blackfoot, California, Texas, Colorado, Oregon, and then settled in Milpitas, California.  About 2 years ago, they returned to Pocatello where Jay and Sandy had begun their life together many years before. Sandy passed away December 25, just less than 5 month ago.

Growing up in Arco, a town of eleven hundred people, Jay had many adventures with his siblings.  The memories we share are in no particular order, but are valued times growing up in Arco, Idaho.

Many days in the summer, all of us would pack a lunch and head up the mountains.  Sometimes we would reach the numbers on the hill and sometimes we would just go up a ways then stop, find a nice comfortable rock, sit down and have lunch and then return home.

There were countless evenings when we would ride our bikes "around the circle".  Mom and Daddy would sit out in front of the store and wave as we would ride by.

We spent many summer hours out in our back yard playing in the dirt.  Sometimes we were bakers and made the most tasty mud pies!  Other days we were farmers, making our farms, planting little tree branches and grass that we pulled from our lawn.  We made irrigation ditches, rivers, lakes and whatever else our imaginations would conjure up.  Jay always reminded us that he always got the shovel, Jana got the hoe and Joan got a spoon in which to dig our holes.  Every once in a while, Jay would take his shovel and take a shovel full of dirt out of Joan's enormous hole that she had been working tirelessly on. This showed he showed had some compassion for his little sister.

Jay, Jana, and Joan spent many hours riding our sawhorses and the tank.  We were going no where for hours at a time.  Our imaginations took us to many places.  We would rope cattle, trap pretend animals, and just ride the wild open country.

One summer we got some frogs from a pond.  Jay had a little frog he named Speedy.  Jay trained Speedy to jump through rings and all kinds of things.  His frog was the most amazing frog that ever lived.

We used to go to the creek on the hill and race our leaves, sticks or whatever we could find.  We wanted to see which one got to the other side of the bridge first.

Another fond memory living in Arco, was playing in the store after we closed up at night.  We roller skated thousands of miles around the store.  We had a special place where we called "Plans to be made".  At that time everyone would roller skate to that corner where many important rules were made, changed or improved.  If someone broke a rule, they got sent back in the living room where Mom or Daddy would punish us.  Our punishment would be to pick up 5 things off the living room floor.  When the living room was clean, we would have to do 5 jumping jacks, or 5 push up or other equally challenging tasks.   We also spent many hours playing the "Sneak Up Game".  It was never the same after we got rid of the old red pop cooler.  We saved many pop caps from the cooler to play checkers with.  We also played bank and store after closing.

Jay had many battles with cancer.  He told us many times that he and Jacob would keep the nurses and other patients laughing with their banter back and forth. They played off of each other's words so well.   He always had a great attitude and a fun sense of humor through all his trials. He loved to send jokes through his texts. It was always fun to communicate with him through these texts as his voice was hard to understand.

Jay raised four beautiful children of whom he was very proud.   He has four grandchildren and Jacob is providing him with another granddaughter later this summer.

Jay was preceded in death by his parents, Margaret and Clarence McBride, his wife Sandy, brother-in-law Amoni Tuha, and niece Jana Bovee Dues. He is survived by his four children, Jason (Becky), Anjilyn, Jacob (Harriet), and Jordan (Vanessa); sisters Rena (Rodger) Bovee of Burley, Idaho, Margie Tuha of Spanish Fork, Utah, Jana (Joe) Rees of West Valley, Utah, and Joan (Arnie) Watson of Grantsville, Utah, as well as his brother Jerry (Susie) McBride of Boise, Idaho. He has four grandchildren and one more coming in August, as well as numerous nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. All of us remember his great sense of humor and dedication to his family and missionary work. Jay will be greatly missed.

Funeral services for Jay were held in View, Idaho on May 18, 2019.