On the other hand, there are those individuals who sail through life indomitably, leaving behind them an enormous, battle ship-sized wake, roiling with differences made, progress, and changes for the better. Jay Stream was such a person. Captain of his high school football team and a college football player, he was tall, broad shouldered and imposing physically, but it was his stature as a charismatic leader and compelling, irresistible personality that made him one of the Arabian horse world's most effective advocates - ever. Jay W. Stream passed away in Scottsdale, AZ after battling illness for seven weeks, on Sunday, 22 January. He would have been 85 in April of this year. He is survived by Dorothy, his wife of nearly 46 years; four children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The two met in 1956 when Dorothy came into the Stream Associates offices to inquire about buying a home. They were married on 20 May, 1960. Each brought two children to the marriage.

"Our personalities clicked, right from the beginning," explains Dorothy, who was at his side throughout his final illness, as she always was. "He was one of a kind. From the time he was a child, he had a passion for designing and building things, and for making things happen. Did you know that it was he who invented the idea of painting the house numbers on the curbs in front of the houses? In the town he created on some virgin farmland, 30 miles west of Chicago, he designed and built 4,600 houses, and added an industrial park (and 5% utility tax) that paid all the taxes for the original homeowners. He gave land to churches, to parks, and there is a school there, named after him: the Jay Stream Middle School. He was always helping people. Two books have been written about him in connection with the town of Carol Stream, which was named after his daughter."

The 2005-Rand McNally Atlas shows that Carol Stream, incorporated in 1959, is a western Chicago suburb with a population of more than 40,000. That industrial park that Jay created includes many of the nation's industrial leaders: Fiat, Morton Salt, Container Corp. of America, Allis Chalmers, Borg/Warner and many others. To this day, there are no city taxes.

Beginnings

Jay Stream was born in Churdan, Iowa, on April 17, 1921, and later moved with his family to rural Wheaton, Ill. "We grew corn, had a dairy herd, and kept about 65 horses on the farm," Stream told AHT reporter Honi Roberts in 1999. "We had Percherons, Belgians and mammoth jacks to produce mules out of the draft mares. We had a Model 'T' Ford, but most often, when we went to town, it was with a horse and buggy. When we were going someplace special, my father would say, 'Go and hitch up the Arabians.' That meant our best-looking team." Stream recalled a representative's coming to the farm and offering to include the Streams' Arabians in a stud book for $10, but the elder Stream was not interested.

After high school, Stream went to the University of Southern California on a football scholarship, but left school to enlist in the Army Air Corps at the outbreak of World War II. He attended flight school at what was then Thunderbird Field, in Scottsdale, AZ, taking his first solo flight as an Air Cadet from that runway in 1942. He became a bomber pilot, but for much of the war, he ferried USO performers to military bases around the world. Stream later applied his piloting skills to flying Greengate's familiar Citation Turbo Charger, unmistakable with its huge portrait of stallion *AN Malik on the tail, around the country.

When World War II ended, Stream went to work briefly for John Hancock Insurance in Boston, but missed his Midwest origins, and soon returned to Chicago. Working out of John Hancock's Chicago office, he quickly rose to leadership in the field of annuity programming. In 1947, looking for something a bit more tangible, he was instrumental in opening the city's first ready-mix concrete plant, and served as president of Royal Ready-Mix Concrete Co. This endeavor, which involved confrontations with unions, political interests and picketing laborers, pushed his ingenuity and perseverance to full throttle. Undaunted and undiminished, he bought a gravel pit in Wisconsin, and was soon shipping 60 freight cars a day full of sand and gravel to Chicago. The business thrived.
"In retrospect," he conceded to AHT in 1999, "I'm proud of my contributions to labor relations with all of the various unions in the building industry. We had understandings, gentlemen's agreements, and I never had any problems." He constructed more than 6,500 houses in Illinois, put up industrial plants for Chrysler, and built and owned shopping centers.

"He built a lot of things," Dorothy reminds readers. From 1949 to 1964, he pioneered and led the Durable Construction Co. to a position as one of Illinois' largest residential and commercial building firms. During this period he served as president of Midwest Land Corp, a land developing and shopping center holding company; of Wheaton Sewer and Water Co., one of Illinois' largest such underground facilities; and president of Hydro-Structure Corp., specializing in large, municipal disposal plants, swimming pools, and related concrete structures. In 1962, he founded the Hawthorne Bank of Wheaton, IL, and served as its bank president and chairman of the board.

Daughter Linda Stream had always been interested in horses, and the kids had kept a few pleasure horses on Jay's father's farm, back in Wheaton. In the early 1960s, however, the Stream family became involved with Arabian horses, and Arabian horse breeding, in a big way. They purchased their first two Arabians: a mare from Dr. Eugene La Croix, and a gelding from Bob Aste, in Scottsdale. Over the next 40 years, Greengate Farm, in San Luis Obispo, CA would breed, raise and import numerous national and international performance and halter champions. Influential Greengate stallions have included *Ibn Moniet el Nefous, Fadjeyn, *AN Malik, *El Moraduke, and *GG Samir. Dorothy, Linda and her daughter, Christie, and longtime stud manager Laurie Thomsen will carry on the Arabian horse tradition at Greengate Farms, always honoring Jay Stream, his vision, and what he accomplished for the Arabian horse the world over.

Truly A Man of Vision

Jay Stream's Arabian horse involvement, and his contributions to the breed's advancement, are truly staggering. He served as IAHA President 1969-1970; created the Ethical Practices Review Board; helped establish and produce the first IAHA Handbook; was instrumental in growing the U.S. National Championship Show; and was executive producer of the Arabian horse promotional movie, "The Proud Breed." Stream also worked with AHSA in developing a drug testing program for show horses; created IAHA's Junior Judges Program; oversaw judges' educational seminars for several years; and helped found the World Arabian Horse Organization. Today, the organization represents more than 50 countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, Lebanon, Iran and Israel, as well as most of the countries of the western world.

Nearly 40 years ago, Stream and several others foresaw a future in which the international Arabian horse community could and would work together to maintain, throughout the world, the purity pf the blood of horses of the Arabian breed. Jay Stream helped write the organization's constitution, and served as its president from 1972 to 2003, working with breeders and executive committee members from many countries to create a special community. "Through his hard work, commitment, determination, dedication, wisdom and courage, he held us all together in his own, inimitable way. He was our founding father, and his passing is a great loss to us all," reads the obituary posted on the W.A.H.O. website.

When he retired from W.A.H.O. in 2003, their executive committee made the following announcement: "After more than 30 years of unswerving commitment to this organization, and to the Arabian horse world-wide, Jay Stream has taken the decision to retire…. The executive committee are very pleased that he has agreed to accept the honorary title of President Emeritus, so they can continue to call upon his wisdom and experience in the future."

The announcement concluded with a pledge to continue to uphold and be faithful to the values and beliefs, and to the spirit of international trust and cooperation, that flourished under Jay Stream's leadership. He received many awards and high acclaim for his work in bringing various factions together to promote and develop the Arabian breed worldwide in harmony and peaceful coexistence.

"After he resigned from W.A.H.O. in 2003, he trusted that new president Hans Nagel and his executive committee, and dear friends in the organization would carry on his vision, and do what is right for the Arabian horse," explains granddaughter Christie Hart. "It is really, really difficult to sum up his life, because of everything he did. At Greengate, where his choices of horses, and his integrity, are everywhere, we will miss him tremendously." Rest in peace, man of vision.