When Christopher Tolkien needed an assistant to edit his father's unpublished work, he contacted Kay, who subsequently moved to Oxford University in 1974 to work with Tolkien on the editing of "The Silmarillion".
When Christopher Tolkien needed an assistant to edit his father J.R.R. Tolkien's unpublished work, he chose Kay, then a student at the University of Manitoba, whose parents were friends of Baillie Tolkien's parents. Kay moved to Oxford in 1974 to assist Tolkien in the editing of "The Silmarillion".