ST. TAMMANY PARISH, LA. 

Obituary for: DAY, JAMES W. 

Submitted by: Louis Lavedan. 

Source: The St. Tammany News

Published on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 

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Day

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James W. Day, died Dec. 24 at his home in Mandeville.  He was 90.

Day graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where he received 
his Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and his officer's 
commission in the Navy Reserve, and met his wife, Evelyn Cooper, of Santa Rita, 
New Mexico. Just after graduation they both joined the Navy to serve in WWII. 
Evelyn was among the very first women in the armed forces, and Lt. James Day was 
a very early participant in the radar program at MIT in Boston, which started 
his career in electronic systems.

After the war Mr. Day studied electronics at Capital Electronics in Washington 
D.C. and in 1950 moved to Bay Village, Ohio, where he worked for Traveler 
Television and then Brush Electronics, a multi-disciplinary firm doing defense 
research and development as well as serving engineering firms in the USA.  Day's 
duties included managing the U.S. sales and support for a line of scientific 
instruments manufactured by the Danish firm, Bruel & Kjaer.

Day's success led the Danish firm to ask him to establish an independent U.S. 
firm to focus only on the sales and distribution of the Bruel & Kjaer sound and 
vibration measurement instruments, the B&K Instruments corporation.  Day founded 
and ran B&K for 20 years and participated in many of the key technology events 
in U.S. history as a major contributor. 

Day's unique contribution to the industry was to focus B&K's efforts on 
engineering solutions to customers' problems, including the use of competitor's 
products when appropriate, and in truly partnering with customers to achieve 
success, rather than focusing only on selling equipment.  This spirit of 
partnership led to international recognition of Day as a leading contributor to 
acoustical engineering and scientific progress.

During this time Day also founded the Effective Leadership, Inc. organization, 
providing management consulting and strategy development services to companies 
around the country based on Day's innovative management approach and the best of 
management practice research available at that time.

After retiring from B&K in 1971, Day moved first to Bay St. Louis, Miss, and 
then to Mandeville, where he lived with his son, Barrett Day, MD.  Day started 
another business distributing AMSOIL products, Endura Products, where he 
established a successful line of sub-distributors and industrial and commercial 
customers for AMSOIL products.

Day was a life-long enthusiast for health enhancing and spiritual uplifting 
activities.  After surviving tuberculosis acquired during his Navy service, 
Day's interest in foods, supplements, herbs and other health enhancing 
approaches was deep and continuous throughout his life. His interest and 
devotion to his spiritual search led him to found the Shadybrook House in the 
Cleveland area. 

Day was pre-deceased by his wife, Evelyn Cooper Day, in December 1999, and is 
survived by his son, Alan Day and his wife Nancy Vescuso of Weston, Mass., 
Barrett Day MD of Mandeville and Rhonda Day of Rio Rancho, N.M..  He is also 
survived by grandchildren Megan Day, her husband Kevin Connors and her daughters 
Ailsa, 9, and Kenzie, 5, of Manitou Springs, Colo., and Adam Day of Cambridge, 
Mass.

Visitation will be today at E.J. Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 West 21st Ave, 
Covington, from 5-7p.m., followed by a memorial service at 7 p.m.  Burial will 
be at the Arlington National Cemetery beside his wife, Evelyn Day, in the 
Spring.  

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