Subject: [All Faculty] Remembering Steve Ajay, CCA professor emeritus
From: Presidents Office <[email-masked]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2021 10:52:01 -0800
List-Id: <nested_in_allfaculty.cca.edu>

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I write with sadness to share news of the passing of Professor Emeritus
Stephen Ajay, founding chair of CCA’s Writing and Literature program, and a
beloved teacher and mentor to generations of CCAC and CCA students. He was
78.

Steve joined the CCAC faculty in 1967 and taught here until 2014—building a
47-year legacy of mentorship, friendship, and inspiration that touched
students, faculty colleagues, and staff alike. He was one of the first
people who welcomed me to CCAC 24 years ago, and his warmth and compassion
were qualities I could always rely on whenever I had an opportunity to meet
with him. He brought these same qualities to the classroom, where he
relished his role as a writer among artists, often teaching with faculty
beyond Humanities and Sciences, in painting or sculpture. He was a guiding
spirit to artists and writers alike.

In a note to Steve’s friends and colleagues following his passing,
professor Emeritus John Laskey, the founding chair of CCA’s MFA Writing
program and Steve’s close friend, wrote, “In a lifetime of poems Steve
wrote of the meanings and emotions that visit each of us daily but that we
fail to recognize or are unable to express. To read one of his poems is not
to forget it.” He included Steve’s final poem, written a few days before he
died. I’m honored to share it here with you.

In the Mirror

Our

vanity

in the face

of infinity

is the

something

to behold

To have known Steve is not to forget him, and those of us who knew him are
fortunate indeed. My thoughts and condolences are with all those in our
community who knew him as a friend, colleague, and mentor, and especially
with his family—his wife Anne; daughter Sybil; daughter Lael, an alum of
CCA’s Textiles program; and grandson Lucas.

Sincerely,

Steve