In the old days, when students asked which courses at San Francisco State should not be missed, the answer was invariably: "Steve Arkin's 'Irish Literature.'" Arkin, 78, died at his San Francisco home just one year after learning of a diagnosis of a rare form of duodenal cancer. He arrived at State in 1967 (just before strikes tore the campus apart) and taught there until his retirement, serving as Chair of the English Department for two decades.

After retirement, Steve lovingly cared for colleagues from the previous generation of teachers and strikers at SF State, visiting and calling often. Not surprisingly, his last year saw these kindnesses reciprocated. His passing was made easier by the attentiveness of friends and family.

Born in Connecticut but raised in Brooklyn, Steve attended Amherst College and Yale University. His passions were many. His book collection overflowed the house; no vital new works escaped his attention. He was the literary executor for the novelist and photographer Wright Morris, oversaw several international Morris exhibits, and arranged for a major donation of photographs to the National Gallery.

Steve is survived by his wife of 44 years, Barbara Ann Koenig, his daughter Miriam Sant Arkin of New Orleans, his son Samuel Elihu Arkin of San Francisco, and his siblings Michael and Ellen Arkin of New York City.

We look forward to celebrating his life with his many friends and former colleagues at a post-pandemic moment.

Please direct donations according to your passion, or to "Friends of the San Francisco Public Library," "Partners in Health," or the "SF Marin Food Bank."

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by San Francisco Chronicle from May 7 to May 10, 2020.

Memories and Condolences
for Stephen Arkin

44 Entries

Nitza Agam

May 2, 2025

Every year it is hard to believe. I had the good fortune to meet Steve purely by chance on Market Street as I sat in a café, looking out people watching, when I recognized him. Even though it had been over 20 years, he was unmistakable. Thankfully, I called out his name, and we had a chance to say hello and catch up. God granted me that moment. Months later, he became ill, and that cup of coffee we had promised to get could not happen. At least I got to see him stride powerfully down the street and his face break into a smile at meeting an ex-student from so many years ago. He was my thesis adviser and a beloved teacher and mentor. May his memory be blessed, always.

Sydney Lea

May 1, 2025

Miss you bsolutely every day, dearest friend on earth. I've been going throiugh our voluminous correspondence (to be included in my archive sat the University of Vermont) but have to do so in tiny doses, so overwhelming is the feeling of missing you.

Paula Burke-Trahon

June 2, 2024

Steve Arkin meant a great deal to me. I gave condolences to his family in 2022, but wanted to remember him again here because I miss him. He was an elegant, kind, and insightful professor, whose good opinion I sought and whose practical advice was priceless to me. He cared about his students lives and work and critical thinking skills. He even officiated at their weddings. I regret that covid interfered with alumni gathering for another memorial. Some of us are still working on this, and will do something in his name if we all have to crawl to a blue state in the middle to do it. Professor Arkin was one of the few mentors I've had who balanced a heart full of poetry with a high-moral character. He seemed to know right from wrong always. He loved his family and friends, and books, films, and excellent teaching. I was inspired by his unabashed appreciation for his life - words fail here. I'll try it once more: He behaved as if he had the exact life he wanted. If heaven exists, I hope to see him again, full of hope in the Irish section, rereading At Swim Two Birds or teaching eager students, or asking Oscar Wilde to sign his book. Rest in Peace my wonderful teacher.

Syd

May 1, 2023

My deardst friend for 55 years, I will miss you till the minute I follow you. Every day, I see something amusing, poignant, contemptible, admirable, and I think, "I gotta call Muddy" (as we called each other). Will love you ad perpetuam.

Nitza Agam

October 24, 2022

May his memory be blessed. We miss him and think of him often, and as said by so many, missed. Any of us who had contact with him either as a student, a friend, a colleague, knew the richness of that connection. Zichrono Le Bracha. (Hebrew for may his memory be blessed)

wes gray

October 17, 2022

hardly two years, still a shock, though should not be. we are not stones standing... nor sea-beds... Miss you, boss,
at least even into middle age you suffered my questions and observations and answered honestly. I hope there is a justice in the universe and place you will enjoy. ( I am skeptical... must say...)

Jim Wenzell

October 12, 2022

I had Professor Arkin for Irish Lit and a couple of other classes. What a wonderful professor. I teach college English now and I can appreciate even more how great he was in the classroom. His intelligence and wit made his classes fun and informative. RIP, Professor. You will be missed.

Kim Haglund

June 11, 2022

In 1997, I was accepted to medical school, conditional on passing an English course prior to matriculating. I had the great good fortune to take Professor Arkin's Irish Literature course and still remember his boundless enthusiasm for the subject, his ability to generate lively discussion, and his warmth and approachability. I have kept all the papers I wrote for that class, and still appreciate the thoughtfulness he put into the feedback he gave me. He was a gem.

Judith Engler Light

April 25, 2022

I had Professor Arkin's class in 1967 when he first arrived at SFSU. Coming from the East Coast, he did not know how to pronounce Salinas. The entire class called out the correct pronunciation in unison. He was a very kind man and an excellent teacher.

Wes Gray

October 18, 2021

Mr. Arkin was tough, honest, human. I enrolled in three of his classes. Irish Literature twice. After the school life, I went into unrelated career, yet our paths crossed. He had broken things that need fixing. He trusted me. He was dealing with same things as us all, not a king.. a Prince, Knight Certainly. You won't ever be forgotten, friend. (I was able to visit in Dublin some of the haunts he described )... He made literature LIVE>!
regardez.w

Aref M Arnous

August 15, 2021

In my old age, the late Professor Arkin is among those dear friends I often remember - his fiery English lectures at SFSU in the late 70s.
I commuted to Africa once a year in those days, and Stephen asked for a mask for son, Samuel. I brought him the African mask, and he attended and recited a poem on my wedding!
Sparks of decent memories, quite precious in old age.
May his soul rest in peace.

Sydney Lea

May 2, 2021

I miss you even more after a year, dear Stephen. What a blessing to have been your friend of 55 years! Never had a better; no one could.

Berel Lang

May 1, 2021

Steve and I were second cousins--through our mothers who were 'first..' I grew up in Norwich, CT, not far from his Grandmother's house ('Tante Mary'). So we met usually when he and his family came to visit, playing in the yards and streets between the houses. (His grandfather, Yankel, was the local iceman, with a horse and wagon, lugging the kegs of ice to local iceboxes, and his grandmother, Miriam, was known for her baking.) We saw each other more frequently then than in later years, although we both became academics, but at east-west sides of the U.S. My memories, then, are of our early years, his mother, Mae, and father, Barney (who worked in the NYC subway system), . We had little direct contact in the later years although following each other through the college networks.

Judith Moore

February 23, 2021

2/23/21 Wrote previously...hope it isn’t lost! Looks like it was because I did this wrong.
A memory I’ve always remembered is when taking Professor Arkin’s Shakespeare class in 1990s, he brought an actress friend, who was appearing on stage in San Francisco, to read for us. She was casually dressed and read dialogue for us. She was a previous student of Dr. Arkin and I think was single... her name was Annette Bening.

Judith Moore

February 23, 2021

2/23/21 Wrote previously...hope it isn’t lost!

Audrey Eyler

Planted Trees

Sydney Lea

December 11, 2020

As I have said to all my siblings and children ad grandchildren, much as my heart daily aches to recall his absence now, I feel utterly blessed to have had a friend like Steve. I have wished upon each and all just one friend f such longstanding and shared love in his or her life. Words cannot impart how deeply he enriched my life with his intelligence, wit (often abundantly wild), and pure human decency.

Katherine (Kay) Walter

December 8, 2020

Many years ago, Stephen was very kind to call me about Jo's death shortly before I was to visit her in Mill Valley. Over the ensuing years, I only met Stephen a few times--once in Mill Valley, once with my husband in Rochester MN, and twice or three times in San Francisco, yet I will always think of him with deep appreciation and esteem. My thoughts are with Barbara, Miriam, and Samuel.

John Clifford

September 7, 2020

I am very sorry to hear about the passing of a great and humble man. Steve was passionate about his family. He was quietly so proud of his wife Barbara and his son Sam and daughter Miriam. He was totally involved in everything His children did. I remember honking at him as he ran his daily run on Laguna Honda Blvd. Toward the end he was matter of fact about his illness and accepted the inevitable. I had total respect for him as a friend and father and I miss him.

Carol Glanville

September 4, 2020

I just learned of Steve’s death. In1967, my husband, John, and Steve were
Invited to the Dean’s home for a welcome party for new faculty members.
I met him then and there were numerous encounters over the years.
The last was a moment of mutual recognition as old folks at Trader Joe’s.
In addition to the San Francisco State connection, we had frequent encounters at Pacific Primary School which both his children attended and where I worked for many years. Barbara, Sam and Miriam, I am so
sorry for your loss. Steve will be remembered by many.

Douglas Higbee

June 29, 2020

Professor Arkin went out of his way to provide me with a travel grant to attend my very first scholarly conference when I was a master's student at SFSU in the 90s. I remember being so nervous before giving my paper that I sneaked several swigs of a potent potable to settle my nerves. I eventually got the hang of the academic work and am now a tenured professor in South Carolina. Not sure that would have happened if Professor Arkin hadn't shown me his timely generosity.

Berel Lang

June 23, 2020

Our mothers were first cousins, both growing up in the Connecticut shtetl of Norwich. That's also where I grew up and played together with Steve on his visits from Brooklyn. His grandfather, Yankel (my great uncle), was the iceman for Norwich, known for his physical strength. Steve and his sister Zelda (Ellen)--Michael was not yet part of it--enjoyed their excursions to 'the country'; their mother, Mae, was known as the small-town beauty at NFA, the local high school. Steve and I both turned out to be academics, although we'd largely lost touch, partly because of the continent in between. We'd seen each other last on a trip I made to California about five years ago. My partner, Barbara Estrin, was at Smith when Steve was at Amherst, and has memories of him from then. Many different strands intermingled, but always with his charm and ready smile foremost.

Marc Yablonka

May 31, 2020

I studied in one of Professor Arkin's English Lit classes at San Francisco State sometime between 1970 and `72. His teaching remains among my fondest memories of undergraduate school at SF State. He left a lasting impact on me and my own teaching. My deepest condolences to his family.
Respectfully,
Marc Yablonka
Adjunct Instructor of English and Creative Writing
Columbia College of Missouri &
Pasadena City College

Natalie Loza

May 30, 2020

I am so sorry for your loss. He was a wonderful man and will truly be missed. When I saw his name on the schedule, it put a smile on my face. He was just one of those people that you looked forward to seeing. May his memory be a blessing to you and to all that had the privilege to know him.

Lynn Safdie

May 29, 2020

Dr. Arkin was one of the kindest, gentleman I have met. I was very sad to hear of his passing. When ever he came to Dr Chins dental office, he never failed to ask me how I was and how my sons were. He was soft spoken & always polite. We will all miss him very much. Baruch Dylan Emet, May his memory be a blessing. My sincere heartfelt sympathy to his lovely wife Dr Koenig and his amazing, wonderful children Sam & Mirian , May Hashem comfort you with the mourners of Zion.

Anatole Anton

May 27, 2020

We still need you, Steve.

George Leonard

May 18, 2020

I know I speak for many when I tell his family how much his wisdom and kindness meant to innumerable younger colleagues in departments not his own. SFSU is colder and poorer without him there. I picture him leaning back in his chair, listening, with that kindly, sympathetic smile he wears in the photograph above. There's a reason he was elected Chair for twenty years. He was everybody's Chair.

May 18, 2020

Steve was a man who was greater than the sum of all his parts a humanist, husband, father, academic lecturer, humorist, and a raconteur of prodigious intellect whose tales about the literature and literatti could hold a roomful of students rapt for an entire class period. In Ireland, he would have been called a seanachie the status of storyteller whose skills were prized and venerated among all classes and over generations. For he was more than just a college professor presenting and discussing literature, Irish, and otherwise; his lectures were a veritable performance by an artist who had bottled the essence of what had captivated him about Joyce, Yeats, and those other Irish writers/poets of more recent vintage (such as Seamus Heaney) who had caught his attention - and then invited us students to partake of the repast.

I first met Steve in the Spring of 1986 teaching that prized Irish literature class cited above. Being from Ireland myself and on my way at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to finish my undergraduate degree (eventually at Berkeley), I was curious about how Irish studies were taught at an American college, and wondered would it be an exercise in sentimentality and colored in green white and orange hues? Of course not! I was quickly disabused of this notion but was, at the same time, enraptured by the fact that here was someone who presented Irish and Gaelic literature in all its multi-dimensional complexity - and relish in it! His reading of the material - with that sonorous, musical voice, a whisper here, and emphasis there exhibited a sensitivity to meaning, and a deep understanding of the rhythm and cadence of those Irish writers who were included in his curricula over the years.

I didnt realize it at the time, but his class proved to be the touchstone for my eventual undergraduate degrees in English Literature and History whose respective subjects were Irish in nature also. And when I decided to embark on a Masters Degree I chose SFSU over U.C. Berkeley in the knowledge that the Chair of the English Department at that time was Stephen Arkin. As my graduate advisor, I got to meet with him fairly regularly, and in between the often poignant, and often humorous, stories from his life and academic career, he encouraged me to pursue what eventually became my Masters Thesis on a mid-Victorian Ascendancy-Irish writer of ghost stories Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. I don't have to tell you how rigorous he was in refining my ideas about the subject matter, and his to-the-point analysis of my early drafts, but it made for a very focused, clearly stated, and very readable final thesis.

Outside of the classroom, and being a resident of the Inner Sunset in San Francisco myself, I would run into Steve on a regular basis! On one occasion (it must have been around 1997-98), he showed up at a soccer practice at West Sunset where his daughter Miriam was playing in a SF Viking girls team. On this particular day, her team played a practice game against a boys team whose goalkeeper just happened to be my son. Miriam scored an unstoppable goal and you could tell how proud he was of her! When you met Steve, he always had a story to tell, and a book recommendation to offer and then he was off to a literary gathering; to visiting ailing colleagues; or simply to see how the film version of Brooklyn turned out in comparison to the book.

My wife and I ran into Steve a few months ago on Irving Street - by which time I was already aware of his health condition (from a previous meeting). He still had that ready smile, and mischievous twinkle in his eye, indicating how delighted he was to see you - even if only a former student! - and left me with the parting gift - "There's living left to be done yet, laddie!"

I am truly saddened that Steve is gone, to know that I will not run into him outside a coffee shop, or any of those myriad spots he would suddenly appear - full of news, banter, and humor. "Gentle" is the word I have heard a lot over the past few days to describe him - to which I would add "gregariousness". He was - to the classroom born - a academic alchemist who could transmute bare prose and poetry into literary gold. And wherever he is now, I'm sure the company is of the best, the conversation even better - and the Irish whiskey of the finest vintage!

My condolences to his wife, Barbara; son, Sam; daughter, Miriam; and extended family.

Sean McGeever

Peter

May 14, 2020

Steve and I became friends in college. In our last two years at AMherst we became very close. We continued our friendship over the next 60 years. During that time Steve remained the same kind, intelligent, thoughtful man he had been when I first met him. He made me laugh, he made me think. I will miss our walks around Stow Lake, and I will miss him a great deal. My condolences to Barbara and his entire family.

Betty Medsger

May 12, 2020

What a wonderful person. Steve's enthusiasm -- for his family, for friends, for ideas, for a better world -- was always present. Honored to have been friend and colleague. Grateful for memories and his very generous spirit that will live on.

Anne Ireland

May 11, 2020

Dr. Arkin was my teacher in the middle nineties when I went back to school, to get a MFA. His class on Irish literature ended moving me to learn and rad more, long after I completed my studies with him. In the true sense, he was a mentor, and when I graduated, I returned periodically to visit him. He always made it clear how glad he was when students pushed themselves further, even when their path diverged from his. He was a life long learned, and he shared his passion with us, his students. In his honor, I have made a donation to Free Minds Book Club, In Washington D.C. It mentors young offenders after their release from prison, and teaches them it's good to learn, to read and write, and to know your own mind. these young people have as much right to learn as I do, and it was my pleasure to help them do so, as Dr. Arkin helped me.

Jon Tilburt

Planted Trees

Jon Tilburt

May 11, 2020

Steve was a gentleman and scholar. I'll miss his wit, his capacity for conversation, and his big heart.

Toni

May 10, 2020

What a kind, generous, thoughtful human being. Every time I saw Steve in the halls of SFSU he stopped and talked and asked how I was doing and those moments stand out as an example of what a true leader and teacher can offer: the sense this person, who has lots of things to deal with, cares about your wellbeing. An amazing quality in a world where so many would rush by. My deep condolences to his family

Cindy Hicks

May 10, 2020

Steve was a wonderful teacher. I remember still, over 40 years later, the many insights about the literature that he led us to. I am grateful for the fond memories. All best wishes to his family.

Bill Righter

May 10, 2020

Dear EllenSue Michael and family our deepest sympathy on the loss of Stephen. Thinking of you all. Love Jane and Bill Righter

Carol Svenson

May 9, 2020

I was an undergraduate English major at SF State beginning in 1970 and took unforgettable classes from Stephen for nearly every semester until graduation. He gave to me and many others in our classes a lifelong love and understanding of English literature; and he set the standard for collaborative and inclusive teaching. 50 years later his influence still looms large in my life. No amount of thanks is sufficient. Big loss.

Walter Kwass

May 9, 2020

Steve had a comic, ironic core and a profound sense of decency. Great taste in literature, food and people. He is missed already. Sympathy, yes, but all good memories as well to Barbara, Miriam and Sam. Walter Kwass

Chris Knipp

May 8, 2020

My deepest sympathy.

Maxine

May 8, 2020

Steve was an invaluable colleague when I became a chair. We spent many Thursdays in discussion, laughter, and commiseration at the Humanities Council. I will never forget his honesty, diplomacy, and kindness. He was a true mensch.

Nitza Agam

May 8, 2020

My first class with Steve was on Jane Austen in 1977 at SF State. What a way to begin my MA education. I took every class with him that I could, and when it was my time to write a thesis, I chose him as my advisor on Virginia Wolf, another class I had taken with him. He was always larger than live; dynamic, passionate, knowledgeable, warm, funny. If you didn't love literature with all your might when you walked into his class, you certainly did when you walked out. His absence is hard to absorb. May his memory be a blessing. Zichrono Le Bracha.

Norman Cooper

May 8, 2020

I have fond memories of Stephen visiting our grandmother and grandfather in CT during the summers back in the 50s.