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Michael F. Jiménez
August 1948-September 2001
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Dr. Michael Francis Jiménez, a distinguished scholar of Latin America who specialized in the history of Colombia, died Saturday, September 1, in Pittsburgh.. Known for his inspiring classroom lectures as well as for his scholarly articles and dedicated community service, Jiménez had been battling kidney cancer for nearly a year.
Most recently a member of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, Jiménez taught at Princeton University from 1985 to 1993 and was a Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research in New York in the early 1990s. Widely known for his interpretations of 19th and 20th century Colombian history, Jiménez also published several influential essays on the history of Latin American generally. His major work, a book entitled Struggles on an Interior Shore, upon which he had been working for many years, will be published posthumously by Duke University Press.
Considered an extraordinary teacher by students and peers alike, Jiménez won the Presidential Teaching Award at Princeton and always attracted hundreds of his students to his popular course on Latin America, both at Princeton and at Pitt. Ruth Simmons, currently the President of Brown University, who worked with Jiménez at Princeton, recalls him as “a person of truly uncommon grace, of lively intellect, and of abundant wisdom, who brought distinction to his profession and to his field.”
Jiménez was actively involved in national debates on the teaching of history, serving as an advisor for the National History Standards. While at Princeton, he also formed close ties with the local community, and worked in particular to promote better race relations as the chair of the Princeton Borough Civil Rights Commission.
Born in 1948 in Merced, CA, he spent most of his childhood in Bogota, Colombia. He was a graduate of Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ, Trinity College in Connecticut, Stanford University, and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1985. Jiménez was also the recipient of several honors including New Jersey Governors Fellowship, the David Rike Preceptorship at Princeton, a Whiting Fellowship, a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship, a Social Science Research Council Fellowship, a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.
He is survived by his wife, Lynn Marie Sanborne, his three children, Christina, 24, of Brooklyn, NY, David, 8, and Eliza Rose, 5, of Pittsburgh, as well as his mother, Mary Elizabeth Jiménez of Pittsburgh, his father Salvador Jiménez of Miami Beach, a sister Sally Abramson of Pittsburgh, and a brother Robert Jiménez of Bridgeport, Conn. The story of his first marriage to Pamela Trigg, her death from breast cancer, and his experiences raising Christina, their daughter, as a single father and aspiring scholar are chronicled in Gloria Emerson’s award-winning book, Some American Men.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by John A. Freyvogel (tel. 412-621-1665). The wake will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 4th at the funeral home (2-4 pm, 6-9PM, 4900 Centre Ave. at Devonshire), and the funeral mass at St. Bede Church on Wednesday, Sept. 5th (probably 10 AM). A memorial service for Princeton alumni, etc.is anticipated to be held in Princeton in June, 2002.
The family requests that donations in his memory be made to the:
Michael F. Jimenez Fund for Student Travel
University of Pittsburgh
FAS Development Office
928 Cathedral of Learning
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
OR TO:
The St. Bede School/Creative and Performing Arts Fund
6920 Edgerton Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
by: Phil Sanborne, Miguel Centeno and Mike Merrill
