In Memory

Steve Jaffe

Steve Jaffe

Received 12/16/09
 
I am so very sorry to have to tell you that my husband (your classmate) Steve Jaffe, passed away on Monday, Dec. 14th due to complications of Parkinson's Disease -  He had told me that he was planning and looking forward  to attending the upcoming reunion.  He had valiently battled this disease for more than 12 years.  His funeral service is to be held this Thursday, December 17th, 12 noon, at Joseph P. Levine and Son in Feasterville/Trevose, PA.  There will be a notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 12/16/09.  I would so appreciate your sending out some kind of notice on your website, if at all possible,  to inform anyone who might be interested.   Many thanks.
 
Susan Jaffe

 



 
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12/17/09 01:50 PM #1    

Elinor Kim Chait (Hirschman)

Artist and professor Steven Jaffe, 67
By Sally A. Downey
Inquirer Staff Writer

Steven Jaffe, 67, of Wynnewood, a painter and professor at the University of the Arts, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Monday at the Quadrangle in Haverford.

Mr. Jaffe earned a bachelor's degree from Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts, and a master's degree in fine art from Temple University. In 1971 he returned to Philadelphia College of Art and for 35 years taught drawing and painting. Over time his previous teachers became his friends, and many of his former students remained close friends, said his wife, Susan Flax Jaffe.

Mr. Jaffe's work included oils, charcoals, and pastels. He exhibited at several area galleries, and his work is in museum collections.

In 1984, when he exhibited landscape pastels at the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Center City, Inquirer art critic Victoria Donohoe wrote: "Jaffe shows himself to be an artist mad about drawing, devoted to rendering all the subtle modulations of light and shade he needs to capture a scene. In each picture, he adds blurry stains of pastel to create forms of architecture and of landscape bathed in a cloudy-bright atmosphere."

In 1991, a painting by Mr. Jaffe was included in "Philadelphia Art Now: Artists Choose Artists," the inaugural exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Contemporary Art. His work was selected by Sidney Goodman, an artist who had taught figure composition to Mr. Jaffe 30 years earlier.
Mr. Jaffe grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Germantown High School. He met his future wife on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. They married in 1965, and in the early 1970s moved to a 19th-century carriage house in Villanova, where he had his studio. They moved to Wynnewood three years ago.

For more than 12 years he struggled with Parkinson's disease, his wife said, and had to retire from teaching in 2006.

He was an animal lover and an avid gardener, and enjoyed collecting American primitive antiques, she said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Jaffe is survived by daughters Megan Edelstein and Melissa and two grandsons.
The funeral will begin at noon today at Levine & Sons Memorial Chapel, 4737 Street Rd., Trevose. Burial will be in Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose.

12/19/09 10:53 AM #2    

Bronwyn Bell (Bird)

I last saw Steve and Susan Jaffe at the class luncheon in Manayunk. Steve looked quite happy to be in the company of his former classmates. It was a lovely afternoon for all. The disease that finally took Steve last week had, apparently just begun.

I best remember Steve with his buddy Tommy Weinstein hanging out in the corridors of G'town, listening to the" brothers" singing acapella. I believe music was a major thing in Steves' life, at least at the time. It was said that he
had 45 record collection like nobody else, mostly rock n'roll and soul. Of course he had those big brown eyes and a very sweet personality.

We'll miss him.


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