Jay Henry Stoudenmire, a retired electrical engineer who worked for AlliedSignal Corp. for more than 40 years, died of cancer Sunday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. He was 79 and lived in Hillendale.

Born in the city and raised on Mount Royal Avenue, Mr. Stoudenmire was a 1939 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University School of Engineering.

During World War II, he served as an electrician and technician aboard PT boats in the Italian Theater of operations.

After being discharged in 1945, he went to work for the old Bendix-Friez Electronic Corp.'s environmental division, which later became Bendix Environmental, in Hillendale in Baltimore County.

He retired from AlliedSignal Corp., a successor company, in 1988.

Mr. Stoudenmire maintained a tool-filled workshop in the basement of his home, where he enjoyed working on his projects.

"He was a great tinkerer and could fix anything. He never took his car to a gas station for repair work; he did it himself," said his son, William L. Stoudenmire of San Diego.

"He built one of the first TVs in the neighborhood, a Stromberg-Carlson kit, in the early 1950s," he added.

Mr. Stoudenmire was a member of the Society of Professional Engineers and Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church, where he had served as a deacon.

Services were held yesterday.

In addition to his son, Mr. Stoudenmire is survived by his wife of 52 years, the former Gertrude Anna May Weitzel; a daughter, June Allen of Milford, Del.; two grandsons; and a great-granddaughter.