Last week, a member of the Weber State University faculty was killed in a multiple-car accident.
Jay J. Jex, 29, was traveling on Harrison Boulevard on June 2 when the driver of a 2008 Mustang lost control and struck Jex’s Prius head-on.
“A 2008 Ford Mustang was traveling southbound on Harrison, lost control of his vehicle while traveling at a high rate of speed, went into northbound, oncoming lanes of traffic and collided with a 2008 Prius,” Lt. Brian Eynon of the Ogden Police Department said in a statement to Fox 13 News. “That Prius then collided with a third vehicle, causing minor damage.”
An investigation into the crash is ongoing.
For many in the WSU community, Jex’s death came as a shock.
“He was a wonderful, kind, thoughtful person who was always giving encouraging comments and supportive comments to students in our program,” Sarah Steimel, director of the university’s Master of Professional Communication program said in a statement to the Standard Examiner.
Jex graduated in the spring of 2016 with his Masters in Professional Communication and had been employed as the reference services coordinator for Stewart Library. Jex was also a graduate of Brigham Young University-Idaho with a Bachelor of Arts in History and had earned a Masters of Library and Information Sciences from Drexel University.
“The loss of Jay was so sudden for all of us here at the library,” Kathy Payne, the Head of Reference and Information Services said of Jex.
Payne was the direct supervisor of Jex and has been helping to handle all of the memorial services for him.
“He will be a hard to replace. He brought so much passion to everything he did,” said Payne. “He just cared about doing everything right and spent so much time breaking down the stereotypes that come with being a librarian. He will be dearly missed.”
Jex was active in his community, serving not only at the Stewart Library but also in his local LDS ward as a Young Men’s President. Jex is survived by his wife, Natalie Jex, his parents, who returned home early from serving an LDS mission because of his passing, and several brothers and sisters.
Services will be held for Jex on Tuesday, followed by his interment in the Spanish Fork Cemetery.
