Richard “Rick” Bay, the affable Cahners vice president who stepped in as JCK’s publisher following a staff defection, died Dec. 2 after an illness, according to Vision Monday. He was 67.

In 1997, after most of JCK’s staff left to form a competing publication, Bay took over as publisher and played a major role in rebuilding the magazine. He eventually left Cahners to head an ophthalmology magazine.

Prior to that, Bay was credited with “selling the idea” of a JCK trade show in Las Vegas to corporate management in the early 1990s.

Bay began in the Chilton Publishing mailroom before working his way to the organization’s top echelons. Chilton was later purchased by Cahners.

According to Vision Monday, contributions in Bay’s memory should be made to: Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, P. O. Box 21688, Charleston, S.C. 29413 or at HeadandNeck.org.

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