A celebration of my relationship with the late Dr. Jay Lehr
Superman. That was my nickname for Dr. Jay H. Lehr during the almost three years he was Senior Policy Advisor to the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).
Jay was always happy when I called him that, as I think he liked the comparison. He sure earned it!
As a child growing up, the comic book Superman was my hero. Superman was brilliant and worked hard. He was strong, super fit, and handsome. He was kind, polite, and unpretentious. And, of course, Superman always told the truth and never backed down in the face of evil. I never thought I would actually meet someone like that in real life.
Then, along came Jay Lehr. At first, he seemed to be too good to be true. I had seen him from afar on stage as the Science Director of The Heartland Institute at their International Conferences on Climate Change (ICCC), and I marveled at this energetic, articulate, tanned, fit, and fearless octogenarian. Surely someone who appeared that awesome on the surface must be arrogant, were I to actually get to know him, I thought.
But no. When Jay and I appeared together on Heartland panels, I realized that, yes, Superman did exist in the real world. Jay was that one-in-a-million person who combined a science Ph.D. with superb athletic prowess, hard work, good looks, and humility to boot. When the opportunity to bring Jay on board as ICSC’s senior scientist, I was thrilled and jumped at the opportunity.
And he did not disappoint. In the past three years, Jay pumped out well-researched exciting climate change and energy articles for me to add my two cents to before publishing. Indeed, since he started working regularly with ICSC in April 2019, articles and radio interviews from the “Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris” team numbered 630 media hits in our media tracking spreadsheet. And that was only our joint media effort. On his own, Jay continued to publish many more. Was this real-life Superman hard-working? Was he prolific? I’ll say!
But it was really Jay’s personality that made him such a valued co-worker and later a personal friend. Always upbeat. Always honest. Always supportive and complimentary to others and never had a mean bone in his body.
Born on September 11, 1936, in Bayonne, New Jersey, Jay was the son of Martin Moses and Rebecca (Dreznick) Lehr. Jay showed early on that he was indeed an over-achiever when he graduated from Princeton University in 1957 at only twenty years of age with a degree in Geological Engineering.
He had what he called “a nodding acquaintance” with Albert Einstein as the two of them would pass on the street on their way to classes and nod to each other in recognition. They never spoke, Jay recalled, but having any connection with Einstein was something he loved to tell people about.
In later years, Jay was well known throughout the Princeton community for his participation in the Princeton Parade: he walked the parade route on his hands for twenty years, And then completed the route annually on his unicycle for another twenty years! You see what I mean by “Superman!”
Jay then went on to receive the nation’s first Ph.D. in Groundwater Hydrology from the University of Arizona and was a professor of Hydrogeology at The Ohio State University in the 1960s and adjunct for many more years. He later spent 25 years as executive director of the National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers.
That was followed by 25 years as Senior Scientist for The Heartland Institute, where Jay ably represented the organization in thousands of presentations to audiences across America and internationally and even testified before Congress on dozens of occasions on environmental issues.
In fact, Jay consulted with nearly every agency of the national government, as well as many foreign countries. He was passionate about educating everyone he met about the science behind the fallacy of dangerous man-made ‘climate change’. Heartland awarded Jay the “Dauntless Purveyor of Climate Truth Award” at ICCC13 in 2019 (see here).
However, it was not just about ‘climate change’ that Jay spoke about. He also educated audiences around the world on biotechnology, business management, and health and physical fitness (Jay authored the book, “Fit, Firm and 50” that I have right here!). He invariably received the highest scores for entertaining and energizing even the largest of audiences.
Jay was also the author of more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 36 books (some of the books he authored are listed here). In addition, he was the editor of:
- Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns, McGraw-Hill’s Handbook on Environmental Science, Health and Technology (2000);
- Wiley’s Remediation Technologies Handbook (2004);
- the Environmental Instrumentation and Analysis Handbook (2005);
- the six-volume Water Encyclopedia (Wiley Interscience, 2005); and
- Wiley Interscience’s Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications (2011).
But, if all that was not enough for this Renaissance Man, Jay was featured in Parachute Magazine in March 2010 for setting a new world record of having jumped from an airplane each and every month for 32 years. His final tally was 1,481 successful jumps, some of which the main chute failed, and he had to land with his emergency chute! Watch Jay skydive here!
He was also known as the “Father of Western Lacrosse” as an assistant lacrosse coach at The Ohio State University in the 1960s. Jay loved playing men’s hardball, club lacrosse, and hockey. He even founded the Columbus Metros semi-pro football team. To top it all off, this Superman was a multiple marathon finisher and a former Iron Man Triathlete!
Even in his eighties, Jay loved splitting thousands of pounds of firewood each week to keep his house heated all winter. You can see why I, a fitness buff myself, was so happy when this brilliant athlete joined me at ICSC!
On July 7, 1991, Jay married Janet Kingery, an exceptional athlete in her own right. Jay and Janet shared 31 wonderful years doing everything together, from traveling to biking to watching Hallmark movies.
At Jay’s “celebration of life” on January 16, the meeting venue in Delaware, Ohio, was packed with people. Everyone who spoke described his energy, enthusiasm, generosity, and goodness.
Jay would have loved it…the happiness, friendship, celebrating, jokes, and all the stories.
While I and many, many people will certainly miss Dr. Jay Lehr, he would not want us to be mournful.
Jay lived an incredible life, and we are all blessed to have known a real-world Superman.
See more here americaoutloud.com
An audio interview with Tom Harris can be heard here americaoutloud.com
About the author: Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He has 40 years experience as a mechanical engineer/project manager, science and technology communications professional, technical trainer, and S&T advisor to a former Opposition Senior Environment Critic in Canada’s Parliament.
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