Obituaries
Maggie Jaffe, Candid SDSU Instructor and Published Poet, 62
Plus other La Mesans in memoriam: Michael "Mickey" John Bruce, 70, and Philip "P.K." Hawkes, 89.
From a stark cubicle on Wall Street, to the lush jungles of Guatemala, to the maze-like hallways of SDSU’s notorious Adams Humanities building, Maggie Jaffe found poetic inspiration wherever she went. The lovely, sarcastic, and often harsh words that brewed in her mind found their way to the pages of several publications, and helped her win the San Diego Book Award for Poetry—twice. Her decades teaching a variety of literature courses at SDSU endeared her to students, inspiring them both creatively and professionally.
“I’ve incorporated some of the novels she taught into my own classes, because I want so desperately for my students to share the love of certain works the way Jaffe shared them with me,” said Sarah Martin, a former student and community college English instructor. “She was an amazing teacher, the rare kind that inspires you to want to be an amazing teacher yourself.”
Maxine “Maggie” Jaffe, of La Mesa, died March 5, 2011, of bladder cancer. She was 62.
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A self-described “counter cultural” artist, Jaffe’s poetry explored political and social injustice, including the plight of Native Americans, Vietnam veterans and the incarcerated. In addition to her publications, her poetry was honored with awards and grants, including the California Arts Council Grant in 1998 and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant in 2009, to which she applied for 30 years before winning.
In her published response to winning the NEA grant, Jaffe described how her years in Guatemala, and subsequent exposure to Latin American poets, demonstrated that “poetry is not an intellectual exercise alone, but the reality that (the poets) lived.”
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“Poetry is my life,” she said. How fitting, then, that her own poetry—her words and emotions and evocative imagery—will live on.
A memorial service for Jaffe will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 10, in the amphitheater at Mission Trails Regional Park.
More information about Jaffe is available in her announcement.
Other La Mesans in Memoriam:
, Grossmont High School grad and former Oakland Raider, spent over 30 years in the San Diego area.
The storied life of , a 1938 Grossmont High School grad, included being a radio operator on the West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
