Kenneth Lay

Lay was born in the Texas County, Missouri, town of Tyrone, the son of Omer and Ruth ( Rees) Lay. Lay's father was a Baptist preacher and Lay grew up in poverty after the family's general store failed. Later in Lay's childhood, his family relocated to Columbia, Missouri, and Lay attended David H. Hickman High School and the University of Missouri, where he studied economics, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1964 and a Master of Arts in 1965. He served as president of the Zeta Phi chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Missouri. He worked at Humble Oil as an economist from 1965 to 1968 in the Corporate Planning Department. In 1968, Lay entered the Officer Candidate School for the United States Navy where, from 1968 to 1971, he rose to the rank of lieutenant and was the special assistant to the Navy Comptroller and Financial Analyst at the Office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Department of the Navy at The Pentagon. ==Career==

Lay worked from 1971 to 1972 as a technical assistant to commissioner and vice chairman (federal energy regulator) of the Federal Power Commission and served as the energy deputy undersecretary for the United States Department of Interior until 1974. In 1996 he held negotiations to replace Robert E. Allen as the CEO of AT&T. Political involvement Lay was a friend of the Bush family, including former president George H. W. Bush. He made monetary contributions, led several committees in the Republican Party and was co-chairman of Bush's 1992 re-election committee. As President, Lay flew Bush and his wife to Washington on an Enron corporate plane. In December 2000, Lay was mentioned as a possible candidate for either United States Secretary of Energy or Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush. He was not nominated because it was decided that the administration already included too many energy businessmen from Texas. From 1999 to 2001, he gave $365,410 to the Republican Party. Enron bankruptcy and trial Lay's company, Enron, went bankrupt in 2001. At the time, this was the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. In total, 20,000 employees lost their jobs and in many cases their life savings. Investors also lost billions of dollars. On July 7, 2004, Lay was indicted by a grand jury in Houston, Texas, for his role in the company's failure. Lay was charged, in a 65-page indictment, with 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false and misleading statements. The trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling commenced on January 30, 2006, in Houston. ==Death==

Lay died on July 5, 2006, while vacationing in Colorado. The Pitkin County Sheriff's Department confirmed that officers were called to Lay's house in Snowmass, Colorado, near Aspen at 1:41 am Mountain Daylight Time. Lay was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:11 am MDT. The autopsy indicated that he died of a heart attack brought on by coronary artery disease, and found evidence that he had suffered a previous heart attack. A memorial service was held a week after his death at the First United Methodist Church in Houston. It was attended by over 1,000 guests, including George H. W. Bush and James Baker. On October 17, 2006, the conviction was overturned due to abatement ab initio, a legal doctrine which says the death of a defendant during an appeal results in a vacated judgment. The government opposed Lay's attorneys' motions of appeal. The United States Department of Justice issued a statement saying it remained committed to pursuing all available legal remedies for victims of the fraud. ==Personal life==

At the time of his death, Lay had been married to his second wife, Linda, since 1982. Both Linda and his first wife, Judith, supported Lay through the trial and made appearances at court. Kenneth Lay had two children, three stepchildren, and twelve grandchildren. ==See also==