BETTY JAYCOX'S SON PASSES AWAY

 Son of Betty Jaycox,

Ed Jaycox, passes away

Ed “Kim” Jaycox, son of BJ Society Department legend Betty Jaycox, passed away Monday, March 1 in his Washington, DC home.

His remarkable life overshadows even his legendary mother’s.

You can read all the details in Kim’s obituary:

Edward van Kleeck Jaycox, Jr. died on March 1, 2021 at the age of 83 at his home in Washington, DC. Known by most by his nickname "Kim", Jaycox was a pioneer in the fight against global poverty and spent most of his adult life traveling the world for that cause. He was a path-maker, a mentor, an adventurer, a sailor, a bird watcher, a story-teller, and a benefactor.

The cause of death, according to his wife Victoria Holt Jaycox, was cancer.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Jaycox was the son of Edward ("Jay") and Betty Jaycox. He graduated from the Hill School in 1954 and received a scholarship from the United States Navy to attend Yale University where he graduated Cum Laude in 1959. Jaycox then served four years as a junior officer aboard the USS Valley Forge.

In 1964, Jaycox received a Masters in International Affairs and a Certificate in African Studies from Columbia University. A traveling fellowship from Columbia allowed him to travel to Africa that summer. Writing about his journey, Jaycox related that "I wanted to be on the ground, finding out what was happening among Africans as they transitioned to independence. So I made the trek thumbing my way by truck or private car, by bus, boat and train, and with only two flights, one across the jungle of central Congo and one from Monrovia to Dakar. A sock full of newly-minted Kennedy half dollars helped to ease my way."

Africa was then the main focus of Jaycox's thirty-two year career at the World Bank. He began in 1964 as a Junior Professional, appraising projects all over the world, then rose through the ranks to a position from 1984 to 1996 as Vice-President for Africa, where he oversaw the Bank's $3.8 billion annual leading program to over 40 African countries.

When he began, most countries' economies were in free-fall, and relations with the Bank were poor. Because the political situations were so fragile, Jaycox devised a way to funnel billions of dollars in funds and debt relief from new sources, so that over 30 countries resumed per-capita income growth for the first time in 25 years. In 1991, he also launched the African Capacity Building Foundation aimed at enabling countries to develop using their own resources. As of today, that Foundation has awarded $700 million in assistance to 48 countries

After retiring from the World Bank in 1996, Jaycox set up the African Infrastructure Fund, one of the first private equity funds focused on investing in Africa, with Nelson Mandela as chair of the Advisory Board. Despite some initial resistance to the idea that private investors could make good returns honestly in Africa, the fund was ultimately very successful and has been succeeded by a number of others.

Jaycox is survived by his wife of 61 years, Victoria Holt Jaycox, the daughter of Victor and Rowena Holt, and by her daughters, Tamara Jaycox Kessler and Lisa Jaycox, both of Chevy Chase, Maryland; by their spouses, Lewis Kessler and Andrew Morral; by granddaughters, Olivia and Isabel Kessler, and Ada and Celia Morral; and by his sister, Jill Jaycox Dietrich of Akron, Ohio.

In 2005, in response to the premature death of Dr. Dunstan Wai, a friend and World Bank colleague from South Sudan, Jaycox and others founded a charity in his memory to provide scholarships to girls in South Sudan and Uganda to attend secondary school and beyond. The Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation now supports some 150 girls in local schools. Gifts may be made in Jaycox's memory to the Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation. www.dwmcf.org .