Obituaries

Jay Leavitt, a computer scientist who helped to lead UB into the computer age during the 1980s, died Feb. 25 in Caldwell UNC Health Care in Lenoir, N.C. He was 85.

Leavitt served as director of academic computing at UB from 1978-88, leading the division that assisted the university’s academic and research computing community in its use of the university’s central mainframe computer. As technology progressed with the introduction of personal computers, he led the integration of distributed computing support and the adoption of the nascent internet throughout the campus.

He left that post in 1988 to take a role as senior analyst in Academic Services, Computing and Information Technology, until his retirement from the university in 2001.

Born in Fall River, Mass., Leavitt earned a BA from Brown University, and master’s doctoral degrees in applied mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

He attended the University of Italy at Pisa as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching a numerical analysis course in Italian.

Prior to joining UB, he taught in the mathematics department at the University of Minnesota, then was appointed an associate professor in the new computer science department. His work focused on supersonic flows and shock waves, non-linear boundary value problems, chronobiology, linguistics, computer art and software for a virtual memory machine.

A freak tumbling accident while a cheerleader at Brown had left him a hemiplegic, and with the passage of Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1973, he became an advocate for the disabled.

Leavitt served on several commissions for the disabled under then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, was president of the New York State Coalition for Persons with Disabilities, served on the Erie County Commission for the Disabled, and was a founding board member of the Western New York Independent Living Center.

As a consultant for the Sarah Project, he helped design a Big Wheels tricycle for a 4-year-old girl named Sarah, who was paralyzed from the waist down. She could operate it with electrical stimulators. An electronic leg brace was also built for Leavitt using the same principles.

In his retirement, Leavitt moved to a farm in North Carolina with his wife, Virginia. While there, he underwent spinal surgery that left him almost fully paralyzed. In his mid-70s he passed the FINRA Series 65 exam, which enables a financial professional to give clients investment advice and analysis. As an octogenarian, he wrote and published forecasting tools for stock market analysis.

Leavitt continued his advocacy activities on behalf of the elderly, creating a suite of videos that featured the lives of prominent citizens. He served on the board of Friends of Residents in Long Term Care, a state organization addressing the needs of residents living in long-term care facilities, and also was a member of the leadership council of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care.

Donations in Leavitt’s memory may be made to Jewish Family Services of Western North Carolina, 53 South French Broad Ave., Suite 100, Asheville, N.C. 28801.