Jay Cross died at his Berkeley, California, home on November 6, 2015.

Jay liked to point out that he and Bill Clinton were born in the same room in Hope, Ark.  At Princeton he majored in sociology and belonged to Charter Club.  He served in the Army from 1968 to 1970, stationed primarily in Germany.  In May 1970, the month of his discharge, he married Uta Bawey in Heidelberg. 

Although he was the product of a highly formal education—St. George’s School in Newport, R.I., the Paris-American High School in France, Princeton, and Harvard Business School—Jay became internationally known as a leader in the field of informal education.  He initially used the term "informal learning” but later abandoned it in favor of "working smarter.”

He wrote numerous books on the subject, including Real Learning, Informal Learning, Working Smarter Fieldbook, and Implementing eLearning.  For nearly a decade he wrote the Effectiveness column for Chief Learning Officer magazine.  He is credited with coining the term "eLearning,” and he designed the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix.