Mo Majduddin Mohamed Jaffer

Mo Jaffer
1924 - 2020
Professor Majduddin Mohamed “Mo” Jaffer, died in the company of family in the early morning of February 8, 2020. He was 95 years old.
Mo (or “Jaffer”, as he was known by his family as he was growing up) was born in Madras (now Chennai), India, in September 1924, to Mohamed Murtuza Hussain and his wife Amtul Wahab Sakina. He was the second oldest of six siblings.
Mo split growing-up time between family in Madras and Hyderabad, India. As a teenager, his academic acumen was noticed, and he was accepted into the prestigious Osmania University in Hyderabad. His emphasis was in the hard sciences, particularly chemistry, a genuine love that he maintained until his last day. Even in failing health, he could debate the relative merits of butane vs. propane vs. methane as heating sources, and the BTU involved!
Mo received his Master of Chemistry degree while studying at Osmania. As a new graduate, he was pressed into service as a teacher for the new India, fresh in independence from the United Kingdom. This was his first experience at teaching, and he had a passion for it.
As a bright mind of the Indian subcontinent, following independence and the partition of India and Pakistan, Mo was awarded a fellowship to attend university in the United States, with the intention of bringing his expanded knowledge in chemistry and chemical engineering back to the fledgling state of India in order to develop and modernize its fuel industry. The child of tropical India sailed by converted freighter from Bombay (Mumbai) in late 1947, arriving in San Francisco in January 1948. Mo went first to the University of Michigan (where he saw his first snow), to study for his Master's Degree in Inorganic Chemistry. After two years in snowy Ann Arbor, he then went to the even colder University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, to earn a Master of Chemical Engineering. It was there that he met the love of his life, Patricia “Pat” Norton, who was volunteering with the International Students Organization.
Mo and Pat were married in the spring of 1951, with the full intention of returning to India, so that Mo could fulfill his commitment to the Indian state, and provide an adventure for the farm girl from the Mid-West to visit exotic locales.  Leaving Pat in Grand Forks to finish her degree, Mo returned to India within weeks of marriage to conduct a job search.  He found that politics and religious bigotry had eclipsed science and education in the government.  Despite his premier education and proven abilities, his ethnic background was held against him.  He was not able to secure employment.  After a year of searching while living with relatives in Madras and Hyderabad, Mo returned to the United States to rejoin Pat and pursue other opportunities.  India's loss was America's gain.
While exploring industry job offers, he secured a teaching position at North Dakota State Normal and Industrial School in Ellendale.  Here he found his calling, and he remained a teacher the rest of his life.  After four years teaching in Ellendale and the birth of three children, Mo and Pat were looking for different weather and expanded opportunities.  Mo applied to a small “teacher's college” in western Oregon.  The timing could not have been more perfect, as Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University) was expanding in the GI Bill era and was in need of new and dedicated faculty.  Equally important, the college had a dedication to selecting excellent professors and staff of wide diversity, and extended a professorship offer to the man from India with the accent.
In the summer of 1958, Mo, Pat and the three youngsters made the trip across the plains and mountains to the west coast, and settled in the sleepy hamlet of Monmouth, home of OCE.  Over the ensuing years, two more children were born, a house was purchased (the only house that Mo and Pat ever owned), and Mo became a naturalized United States citizen.  He was involved in multiple community improvement projects, was honored as a Monmouth-Independence First Citizen, and spent over 30 years engaged in the profession that he truly enjoyed.  Over that time thousands of young college students went through his Chemistry, General Science and Geology classes, and he was dedicated to them all.  Many students stayed in the area and became teachers themselves, and often credited Prof. Jaffer with helping them get through the rigors of the hard sciences.
Mo thoroughly enjoyed family camping trips during spring break and summer vacation, traveling throughout Oregon, the other western states and Canada.  The geologic wonder of Crater Lake was his favorite place to visit.  Family and friends along for these trips always learned something new about the science of the area visited.
In 1989, during difficult financial years for OCE/Western Oregon State College, Mo volunteered for retirement, so that younger faculty would not have to be let go.  While he truly missed the classroom, he did find other passions to fill his time.  He and Pat traveled extensively, both in the United States and abroad, visiting family and friends, and meeting new people.  Additionally, as a long-time member of the International Lions Club through the Central Lions Club, he now had time to serve in various officer capacities, eventually being elected District Governor of Dist. 36R, served as a Council Chairman of the Oregon Lions, and was a Board Member and Chairman of the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation (OLSHF).  Mo was selected to the OLSHF Hall of Fame in 2012.  Pat was selected for the same accolade in 2018, making Mo and Pat the first husband and wife ever selected for the prestigious honor.
In the last few years, as his mobility decreased, Mo delighted in visiting with friends and family in the same home in which he and Pat lived for nearly 60 years, where they raised their kids and where his 12 grandchildren had spent countless hours playing. He enjoyed his final years of 95 years well lived.
Mo Jaffer is survived by Pat, his wife of over 68 years, their children; Becky Jay (Jon) of Independence; David Jaffer (Johanna) of San Jose, CA; Kris Yarnall (John) of Silverton; Pat Pecorilla (John) of Eugene; and Danny Jaffer (Renee) of Independence; their 12 grandchildren; two grand sons-in-law; three granddaughters-in-law; three great-grandchildren; his brother Ameen and his wife Vasima, and his sister Shahida, of Chennai, India; and several thousand cousins and like relations within the modern Indian family diaspora.
The Celebration of Mo's Life is planned for Saturday, March 18, 2023, 2:00 PM at Christ's Church, 412 Clay St W, Monmouth, OR 97361.
The family requests that any donations in tribute to Mo be made to either the Central Lions Club of Monmouth-Independence (P.O. Box 101, Independence, OR 97351), the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation (OLSHF.org), or to the Mo & Pat Jaffer Scholarship Fund, Western Oregon University Foundation (345 Monmouth Ave. N, Monmouth, OR 97361);
Farnstrom Mortuary is caring for the family.