Deceased Information

• DECEASED

  Irving Kay

  Yitzchak ben Yakov v' Chaiken

• AGE

  88

• DATE OF DEATH

  Tuesday, July 25, 2023 (Before Sunset)

• DATE OF FUNERAL

  Friday, July 28, 2023

• TIME OF FUNERAL

  10:30 AM

• PLACE OF FUNERAL

  Graveside

• PLACE OF BURIAL

  Arlington Memorial Park, 201 Mount Vernon Hwy, Sandy Springs, GA 30328

• DONATIONS

• OBITUARY

  Irving Kay, a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend, passed away on July 25^th, 2023 in Roswell, GA.

  Kay, 88 was a retired oil executive. He was an expert in computers and communications who spent 28 years at Mobil Oil Company locations in New York, Virginia and Dallas. He held a series of supervisory and managerial roles over the years in the company’s Exploration and Production division. Irv served domestically in the Air Force during the Korean War.

  Born in 1935 in Baltimore, MD, he grew up in the Bronx, New York, and attended the Yeshiva Salanter, the Bronx High School of Science and the City College of New York. A math whiz, he was recruited following his graduation from CCNY by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to consult on the Apollo moon project in Houston. Later in life, he was modest about his small but critical role at NASA, where he spent about three years. He helped assure a safe landing for the first astronauts to reach the moon, and a safe return, earning him the nickname “Rocket Man” among family and friends.

  At Mobil, Kay worked to establish and upgrade communications and computer systems throughout the company, traveling to facilities in Norway, Indonesia and Nigeria to consult and implement new technologies.

  Irv and his wife of 50 years, Cecile raised a family of two sons, Peter and Jonathan in Riverdale, New York. They enjoyed summer vacations with lobster dinners in Montauk, NY and on Cape Cod.

  Following his retirement in 1996, he and Cecile moved to Washington D.C., where he took courses at the Corcoran School of Art, becoming a sufficiently proficient welder to have one of his metal sculptures displayed at the Bronx Museum of Art.

  He also threw himself into volunteer work with organizations seeking to help unemployed woman prepare for and find work. He also headed the Washington office of SCORE ( the Senior Corps of Retired Executives), which advised the Small Business Administration on loans to small businesses in the nation’s capital.

  Irv particularly enjoyed providing internet-based tutoring in mathematics for students around the world, as one of the several rigorously screened and trained volunteers on the “Doctor Math” website. He was a “Doctor Math” for about five years.

  A year after the death of his wife Cecile, he married journalist Carol Askinazie and moved to Atlanta/Sandy Springs Georgia. Carole and Irv were supporters of the American Jewish Committee, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and the Temple. With Carole, he enjoyed dressing up on holidays to visit cancer patients and caregivers at area hospitals. They became known as the “Jewish Easter Bunnies of St. Joseph’s.

  After Carole’s death in 2016, Irv moved to Sanford Estates Retirement Home in Roswell, Georgia. He enjoyed his remaining years there, making many friends including his girlfriend Vicki Green,  while enjoying visits from family, grandkids and friends.

  Irv is survived by his son Jonathan, daughter-in-law Laura and grandchildren Seb and Benjamin. He was preceded in death by his wives Cecile and Carole, and his son Peter.