Deborah, the profile is not open … at least, not in the way the word "open" is used here. Here, open is a privacy level and if a profile is open and has no manager then it can be adopted. As you said, this profile is private, therefore it is not "open for adoption". Unfortunately, the link to "adopt this profile" is always shown when there is no profile manager even though in the case of a private profile, it leads to an error when you try to adopt it.
Since Jay Goodman died recently, his profile is not required to be open. If you are a relative then WikiTree will be willing to make you its manager. Shirley's advice is the correct way to request that.
