Jay Lash Cassidy, a student from Rockville, Maryland, enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1967 and graduated in 1970. At the University of Michigan he was active as a photographer for the campus yearbook Michiganensian and the student newspaper The Michigan Daily . Cassidy was the Daily photo editor during the winter 1970 semester. His photography during this period captured subjects as diverse as the 1968 presidential campaign, a 1967 homecoming concert featuring the Doors, and scenes of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in Ann Arbor. Cassidy also took photos off campus. His off campus photography covered events such as the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the 1969 March on Washington, Richard Nixon's inauguration, and the 1968 campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy and George Wallace for President.
Cassidy began his career as a film editor in the 1970s working on documentaries and political advertisements. Over the course of his professional career, Cassidy has edited more than 40 films, including Tuck Everlasting and An Inconvenient Truth (2006). He has also formed a close working relationship with Sean Penn, editing all of the films that Penn has directed. He has been nominated for several Academy Awards and won the Best Documentary Editing Academy Award for An Inconvenient Truth . An Inconvenient Truth also won the award for Best Documentary Feature. Cassidy's professional accomplishments also include election to the American Film Editors society.
From the guide to the Jay Cassidy photograph collection, 1967-1970, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
