Recep Yalcin Okaya

Yalcin Okaya was born on December 24, 1929, in Izmir, Turkey. One of the proudest moments of his life came when he represented the Turkish National Basketball Team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. That experience led to an invitation from Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics to coach at his summer youth basketball camp in New Hampshire. Encouraged by Cousy and teammates Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn, Yalcin stayed in the United States. Though he spoke no English at the time, he quickly absorbed American idioms from the camp teenagers. His new friends found him a room at the YMCA, and the police chief of Quincy, Massachusetts, gave him a woolen blanket and helped him secure a job washing transistor tubes at Raytheon Company, where he became proficient in English.

Recognizing his talent and education, Raytheon promoted Yalcin after he revealed that he already held a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Ankara University. He advanced to the semiconductor division and remained on the East Coast until 1967, when he moved to Silicon Valley. He continued working as a process engineer at Raytheon in Mountain View, California, for more than thirty years.

An avid skier, Yalcin met his wife Sally in Aspen, Colorado. Heli-skiing became a shared passion; he survived both a helicopter crash and an avalanche, and ultimately skied a million vertical feet to earn the Million-Foot Suit. He continued skiing in his distinctive Bogner attire until the age of 86, happily teaching his granddaughters on the Wundercarpet at Dollar Mountain in Sun Valley and rewarding them with baskets of Grumpy’s french fries.

Yalcin and Sally were enthusiastic world travelers who visited six of the seven continents. He especially enjoyed serving as a tour guide for friends visiting Istanbul. Known affectionately as Turk, he was a skilled photographer who created memorable slide shows of their journeys. A proper gentleman who always popped his collar, Yalcin loved being the center of attention, telling stories of his youthful adventures to the delight of his friends and granddaughters.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Sally, daughter Engin Okaya (Brian Kruse), beloved grandchildren Jillian and Jenna, and nephew Berlan Alan. He was preceded in death by his father Vehbi, mother Mufide, and sister Necla.