If you attended VT in the sixties and seventies, please open.
You may recognize my childhood friend that I lost touch with.
He was in engineering school at VT (probably mechanical) in the mid to late sixties perhaps. Maybe later. His name was Jay Byrd but his real name was Javie An Byrd III. He died in 2019.
I lost touch with him when we went into the eighth grade. Never heard a thing about him until I found his obituary. Here is where it gets interesting. The high school yearbooks showed him in the eighth grade for three years, 60, 61 and 62. Also, the city directory had him as being employed at a local machine manufacturer along those same years (at 15yo or less). That is puzzling. He has on his Face Book page that he got an engineering degree from VT. I know there are some remarkable stories about people overcoming their struggles but this one is close to home. Can this be true though? Yes, according to the obit, he was a vp at Georgia Pacific so something changed.
4 Replies
4w
Javie An "Jay" Byrd III went straight into his long career in industrial plant management and manufacturing right in the Tidewater area of Virginia, working his way up to plant manager for Chesapeake Hardwood after his time with Georgia-Pacific.
He had a long career in manufacturing and industrial operations, working for Georgia-Pacific, Plywood Panels Inc., and Bennett Mineral Company.
He was known for being incredibly mechanically minded and loved restoring and fixing old cars. He was also an avid outdoorsman who loved fishing and was a member of the North American Fishing Club.
His family has deep ties to the Suffolk/Nansemond and Chesapeake areas of Virginia. He was preceded in death by his father, Javie An Byrd Jr., and his grandfather, Javie An Byrd Sr.
Javie An "Jay" Byrd III passed away in April 2019 at the age of 60. He was a resident of Chesapeake, Virginia.
(In response to this post by IB4TECH)
4w
(In response to this post by VTVOICE)
4w
(making him 73, not 60). AI botched the death math only.
(In response to this post by IB4TECH)