Jay Whatley, 54, Lone Star-Kingwood’s Beloved Dean, Dies.
By Emily Slater, News Editor
When faculty and administrators talk about Jay Whatley, dean of the Math, Engineering, Education & Student Success division, they all call him “Our Jay.”
“You know you sometimes run into people that are really accomplished and they have become arrogant along the way, right? Or you run into someone who is really intelligent and they develop a kind of cruel streak by making fun of people who aren’t as smart as they are. He was the opposite of all of those things,” James Stubbs, dean of the Fire Science, Letters, Arts & Kinesiology division, said, “And I think that’s one of the things that makes him really special in my opinion.”
Beloved dean, colleague and friend, Whatley died suddenly on February 24, 2017. He was 54 years old. A memorial is planned on campus on March 9 at the Student Conference Center.
Those who worked closely with Whatley during his time at Lone Star College-Kingwood described him as a light and a force. He was known for his intelligence, musical abilities, humility, and whit.
“He was somebody that would inspire people, somebody that would push you to be better without you knowing you were being pushed,” math Professor Charity Combs said.
Since his passing, a void has been left in the hearts of those whose lives he touched, Stubbs said.
Whatley was born in Tyler, Texas on February 12, 1963, and raised in the East Texas town of Mineola, where his stepfather and several siblings still reside. Whatley is preceded in death by his mother and father, Sara K. Dowdle and Jackie R. Whatley, respectively.
While Whatley studied Piano Performance & Pedagogy at Sam Houston State University, he was a virtuoso on not only piano, but also a master organist. He has traveled around the state, the country, and even the world as an accompanist and soloist on piano and organ. He has performed in Salzburg’s Dome Cathedral, at Bath Abbey and St. John’s Smith Square in London, and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, as well as a tour of Italy with the Sam Houston State University Chorale.
Whatley was not only a renowned musician but also an esteemed educator, Todd Miller, department chair of the visual and performing arts, said.
Whatley joined the LSC-Kingwood staff in 2008 as a Professor of Music and later that year was promoted to chair of the visual and performing arts department. In 2015, Whatley took on a new challenge, leaving the department to become Dean of Math, Education, Engineering, and Student Success.
“I think in this world there tends to be a push to conformity, to things being a certain way, and Jay lived a life of tremendous excellence by being exactly himself,” said Miller.
Whatley will be missed dearly by his friends and colleagues in the music community and in academia, by the students whose lives he has touched, by the family members he left behind, and by his husband, whom he married last July, Chris Rogers.
For his friends and colleagues, Whatley was a rarity.
“He was one of a kind and there will never be anyone like him ever again,” Stubbs said.
Read Columnist Cara Young’s thoughts on Dean Whatley’s passing by clicking in the link below.
Watch Lone Star College- Kingwood faculty’s testimony
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