Jaye Dyer, a geologist from Oklahoma and entrepreneur who started his own Minneapolis-based energy company, was remembered by friends and relatives as a meticulous but genial businessman who also treasured his ownership of the Minnesota Vikings and who gave generously of his wealth to organizations that train and employ disadvantaged people.
Dyer, 82, of Wayzata, died at home Tuesday, surrounded by family members and friends after struggling with health issues for some time, said Dyer's son, Michael.
"He was a golfer right to the end," Michael Dyer said Saturday. "His last round was a week ago Friday at the Wayzata Country Club. He had fun.
"Pop liked people, and he liked to help them. There wasn't a car parker in America who he didn't know. He helped our 20-year fishing guide and his wife in Florida buy a house. He was a good tipper. He was generous. He also was meticulous. He loved to read and he would record the names of the books he read each year and the number of pages."
His reading tastes ran from sports to business to, recently, the life of President Obama.
Dyer, a son of rural Oklahoma, graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1951. He served in the Navy before college.
He entered the oil and gas business and moved to Minnesota to take a job with Ray Plank's oil-exploration company, Apache Corp., in the 1960s.
Dyer started Dyco Petroleum in 1971 and took it public in 1976. It grew big enough to get listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Dyco was acquired by the former Diversified Energy, the parent of Minnegasco, in the 1980s. The company later moved to Arkansas.
