Photo courtesy of The Denver Post/Getty Images
—George Washington University Professor of American Studies Gayle Wald in The New York Times
Ella Jenkins (B.A., ’51), the “First Lady of Children’s Folk Song,” died peacefully at 100 years old. Although she did not have any formal music training, she released 39 albums with the Smithsonian Folkway label. She appeared on “Barney & Friends,” “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street” and received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Recording Academy.
Bay Area theatre critic Misha Berson (B.A, ’53) was an influential mainstay in the Bay Area theatre scene. She was part of the Magic Theatre during its celebrated 1978 season and one of the first executive directors of Theatre Bay Area in the early ’80s.
Patricia Miller Kennison (M.A., ’54) comes from a Gator family, with her husband, daughter, son and daughterin-law all being alums. She taught at SFSU’s Frederic Burk demonstration school for five years. Throughout her career, she also taught in the Long Beach Unified School District and at Mills College in Oakland.
Grammarian Serena Bardell (B.A., ’57) loved providing unsolicited edits to news outlets via “Goof Cards,” which included corrections in a friendly handwritten note. Her husband says she was still reading and marking up papers six months before her death at age 92. For eight years, she also published a bimonthly restaurant newsletter.
Martin Benson (B.A., ’63) co-founded South Coast Repertory with fellow alumnus David Emmes (MFA, ’62), who he met as SFSU. Benson directed more than 100 productions and won seven Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
June Rios (M.A., ’66) died peacefully at the age of 96. The Pasadena native studied Art before shifting to Early Childhood Education. In 1966, she received her master’s degree. She was part of the Hope School District for 38 years until her retirement.
Millicent Dillon (M.A., ’66) was trained as a physicist before becoming a novelist and prizewinning shortstory writer. She won five O. Henry Awards for her stories but was known for her writing about American literary couple Jane and Paul Bowles.
Though he was an avid traveler, journalist, photographer and educator, Ted Friedman’s (M.A., ’67) heart was always with Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. More than 3,000 of his photos, many of his beloved neighborhood, can be seen on his Flickr account.
Even in her 90s and with one knee replacement, Adah Bakalinsky (MFA, ’72) would routinely take walks, a pastime that led to her love for the public stairways of San Francisco. At age 50, she wrote “Stairway Walks in San Francisco,” her first-ever publication, which is now on its 10th edition. The 91 steps near Buena Vista Park were named “Adah’s Stairway” by a city proclamation as a birthday gift in 2012.
Emmy Award-winning composer and bassist Mark Izu (B.A., ’80) left his mark on San Francisco’s Asian American arts scene. Izu (above) created Asian American Jazz, a new genre of music combining traditional music of Asia with African American improvisation. He composed scores for film, theatre and live music concerts.
Born in Poland, Mira Shelub (B.A., ’88; M.S., ’94) was studying Yiddish language and literature before her education was derailed by the Holocaust. In 1945, she and her husband were forced into a camp in Austria before escaping to America. She eventually returned to her educational pursuits, this time at SFSU, in the late ’70s and later taught Yiddish at the University and counseled Russian émigrés at Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
Wrestler Anthony (Tony) Jones (B.A., ’95) debuted as “The Shooter” Tony Jones in 1997. During his career, he won the APW Tag Team Championship and APW Universal Championship. At SFSU, he enjoyed a successful five-year wrestling career and served as assistant coach for the SFSU Greco-Roman freestyle wrestling team in 1995.
Utah State University Professor Rachel Walton (Ed.D., ’05) was a pioneer in cold-case research. Before teaching, she was a deputy sheriff and district attorney investigator.