Jason Gait

Jason Gait, former software engineer and college professor, died September 29, 2022, at his home in Georgetown. He was 83 years old. 

Mr. Gait was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1939, and attended the University of Miami. He served in the U.S. Navy at the Hurricane Research Center, also in Miami. He later received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. 

After the death of his wife, Barbara, Mr. Gait raised his son, Jaime, as a single parent. Their relationship was close in the early years, but later grew distant.

Jason Gait then married Janet Much, but they divorced within a few years.

He taught mathematics at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. He later became a researcher at the National Bureau of Standards Center of Computer Systems Engineering in Gaithersburg, Maryland. 

In 1977, he returned to academics as professor of computer sciences at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, and was instrumental in bringing the first mini-computer to the university. 

After leaving the University of Mississippi, Mr. Gait embarked upon a career in the private software industry, first at Tektronix, in Beaverton, Oregon, then at Digital Equipment Corporation, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He later worked at Transarc, a division of IBM, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

In 1999, Mr. Gait moved to Georgetown, where he resided until his death in 2022. 

He was a private man, keeping few, if any, close friends. He never remarried again, instead focusing on his work. In his later years, he enjoyed growing many orchids in his yard in Georgetown, a pursuit he began in his native Florida.

Jaime Gait remembers his father as a reserved man, and they were estranged for some years before his father died. Jaime Gait now finds himself wishing to know more about his own father and searching for people who can tell him more.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara, and is survived by his only child, Jaime, a chef and farmer in Oxford, Mississippi.