Army vet, writer, bartender, psych tech, Zen man — celebrating a life well lived | Opinion

Life wasn’t easy being a liberal Democrat in the northern reaches of San Luis Obispo County, known colloquially as “North County,” minus the “The.”

Still, today is no walk in the park. Yard signs for Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden – any Democratic candidate for office – were (and remain) an invitation for vandalism.

North County is a place liberal Democrats like Jay Salter and his wife, Tina, spent the better part of 50 years softening up. Thanks to their dedication and that of so many North County friends, today the Atascadero Democratic Club, Paso Robles Democratic Club, North County Indivisible and the like thrive, relatively speaking. Today, it’s safe for thousands of Democrats and like-minded fellow citizens to march in the streets against authoritarianism without fear of confrontation or violence.

Born June 1, 1937, in Cleveland, Ohio, Jay Salter lived 88 years and not a day went by without something good coming from it.

Alvin Jay Salter died peacefully on April 5, 2026, in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday. In some cosmic way that no doubt would have elicited a benevolent smile. It’s fitting that this practicing Buddhist passed away on the day two-and-a-half billion Christians across the globe mark as one of rebirth and renewal.

We’ll remember Jay as the good Zen man who died on Resurrection Day.

Among Jay’s many admirable characteristics, his voracious curiosity and boundless goodwill stood out. With a towering yet humble intellect, Jay Salter could never extract enough knowledge, enough informed opinion from the person lucky enough to sit across a table and have a conversation with him. Anyone who met him couldn’t help but like him.

Jay’s world revolved around not himself, but the people around him — his family, his friends, his community, his country. Jay was all about us, everyone in his life. He had a knack for directing every conversation away from himself toward others, almost as if programmed into his DNA.

Husband, dad, brother, Army vet during the Korean War, Vietnam contractor, union organizer, prison counselor, advocate for the politically weakest among us, righteous protestor, one of the most powerful lovers of democracy anyone could know.

Jay’s life journey started on an Ohio farm until the age of 10, then moving to Santa Barbara with his parents, two younger brothers and grandparents.

Upon graduation from high school, Jay joined the Army, spending his military years during the Korean War in Germany. After that, he returned to California and college, and married Tina. Family in tow (Tina and two daughters), the next stop was the community of Sierra Madre, where they settled. Jay became a technical writer for the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In 1970, Jay took a job in Saigon writing a house paper for employees of Pacific Architects and Engineers. He traveled throughout Vietnam, observing the war, interviewing people, processing the truth about a war that helped inform his worldview thereafter. The experience caused him to realize first-hand the folly of war and the devastation it causes.

Jay, Tina and the girls moved to Atascadero in 1976, built a house and settled into a semi-rural life. No tech writing jobs, so he worked as a bartender and went to psych tech school.

After working at Atascadero State Hospital for a stretch, he helped psych techs organize with the Communications Workers of America. The workers won that vote, but the CWA couldn’t deliver services. Jay then led the effort to form the California Association of Psych Techs (CAPT) and decertify the CWA. During his career with CAPT, Jay was president of the ASH chapter, then statewide president, then a staff organizer and union rep for psych techs who had issues with their employment.

Jay later became involved with the GRIP (Guiding Rage Into Power) program for inmates at Avenal State Prison. Of all the work he had done in his life, this was his most personally fulfilling.

Political activism came naturally. Jay took up the anti-Diablo cause and was arrested protesting the plant during construction. He served on David Blakely’s county supervisor campaign committee for all his elections, and worked on supervisor campaigns for Shirley Bianchi, Jim Patterson, Eric Michielsson, Susan Funk, Bruce Gibson, Jimmy Paulding and Ellen Beraud.

Jay did his final protest at the No Kings III rally in Atascadero last spring, waving a sign out of his car window, Tina behind the wheel.

Too weak to march or drive, sensing his next journey might soon begin, Jay Salter used his last protest to rally the rest of us to continue the struggle. Without Jay, it’s now up to us to honor that.

There will be a celebration of life for Jay Salter beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at Jay and Tina’s home, 14080 San Antonio Road, Atascadero. Friends are warmly welcome, and encouraged to bring memories of Jay to share.

Tom Fulks chairs the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party.