Members Matter: Jay Roelof

Jay graduated from UC Berkeley in 1963 with a math degree and an ROTC Army commission. While serving two years with the First Infantry Division in Kansas, he married Georgia and they moved to her home state where Jay joined the Corporate Secretary’s office of American Machine & Foundry (AMF), a large international conglomerate based in New York City.

They raised two sons in various NY suburbs over the next twenty years until a corporate raider waged a hostile takeover of AMF. By then, Jay had developed a side business as a wine writer and lecturer, so he decided to change careers and become a wine educator.

However, in 1986 The First Boston Corporation, a New York investment bank, asked him to be their Corporate Secretary, a job he held until 1994 when First Boston was forced to merge with Credit Suisse. Jay again became one of several corporate officers whose positions were eliminated.

This time Jay really did turn his life-long hobby into a career. For seven years he was Vice President of a wine store customer education kiosk venture, and then joined a large Westchester, NY, wine merchant as its Director of Education and wine buyer for New York, German and sparkling wine, a position which he grew until he retired to move with Georgia to Oregon wine country! As a parting gift, the New York Wine & Grape Foundation arranged for them to attend their 2013 annual awards banquet in Rochester, where Jay was given their “Retailer of the Year” award – a much nicer way to end a career!

Now Jay is involved with several Lincoln City volunteer organizations, the latest of which (LWV) allows him to support Georgia’s quest to increase informed local voter turnout, especially among our high-school students!