Jay Tyson grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering in 1976. He and his wife Eileen spent four years in Liberia, where Jay worked on road construction projects. They also spent seven years in Haifa, Israel, where he assisted with historic restoration at the Baha’i World Center. They returned to New Jersey in 1989, where they raised two daughters and Jay continued his career in civil engineering.
Raised in a Presbyterian household, Jay was apt from an early age to deeply ponder spiritual matters. He became a member of the Baha’i Faith in 1970 and has long observed a daily regime of reading scriptures or books on religion and religious history. The Wise Men of the West: A Search for the Promised One in the Latter Days is his first novel and reflects his commitment to studying religion, history, and geography. His years in the Holy Land also gave him the opportunity to travel to many of the locations in which the first half of the story is set.
