Floyd Gaffney

A great champion of the local black theater and dance community, longtime Poway resident Floyd Gaffney, died July 19 of stomach cancer after having being diagnosed with the disease five weeks ago. He was 77. "He introduced us (African Americans) to the San Diego community through theater," said his longtime friend, Antonio "TJ" Johnson, artistic director of the Black Ensemble. "He ushered us into the mainstream. Now, it is to the point where the awareness has been raised and the next generation has got so many actors, that we are part of the community now and feel comfortable reaching out, taking chances and branching out. You'll see Floyd's even bigger influence in the years to come." Born on June 11, 1930, in Cleveland as the youngest of five children, Gaffney went on to pursue a career as a dancer before enrolling in college at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., where he received a bachelor's and master's degree in theater. He also received a doctorate in theater at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (then known as Carnegie Institution of Technology). Last year, he was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" as part of the KPBS Patte Awards for Theater Excellence. After early teaching positions at Clark College in Atlanta, Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and UC Santa Barbara, he was recruited by UC San Diego in 1971 to help start the university's department of dance and theater. "We needed more diversity in the faculty and he gave a little more punctuation to the multicultural consciousness," said Allan Havis, provost of Marshall College at UCSD, adding that Gaffney helped with recruitment at the campus and was responsible for a highly successful symposium on multiculturalism in 1991. "I am very sad about his passing," said Havis, Gaffney's office neighbor at UC San Diego for 14 years. "I think he single-handedly gave definition to black theater here in San Diego. He was able to help create important theater here with very little money. He didn't have the endowments of the Old Globe or the La Jolla Playhouse, but he made some major things happen and created influence. He was not petulant or a political lobbyist, he just did it on his own, in a very modest way. He was a non-confrontational activist." Before his retirement in 1994, when he was named professor emeritus, Gaffney was instrumental in bringing the university's master program in dance and theater to prominence as one of the country's most highly regarded. He also worked with the Southeast Community Theatre, San Diego's oldest black theater organization, before the group was renamed Common Ground Theatre in 2004 under his leadership. The theater's current production, "Josephine Baker Tonight," has been widely praised and was directed by Gaffney. As a director, Gaffney is credited with the discovery of new talent and was a mentor for dozens of future actors, including James Avery, who starred on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," and John Houston, a star on television's "In the Heat of the Night." His daughter, Monique Gaffney, also a professional actress, has starred on TV's "Lincoln Heights" and acted with countless local theater companies, including Cygnet, 6th@Penn, Diversionary and Lynx Performance. "He wasn't the kind of director who would come to opening night and then never come again," Johnson said. "He was there all of the time and would come to every show. I remember one night, it was our last show, and he told me how to improve my performance. ... He had a knack of finding the emotion and the words that weren't on the page." Gaffney is survived by his wife of 48 years, Yvonne, daughters Michele of Escondido and Monique of Poway, and sons Antoine of Poway and Brett of Cardiff, as well as a brother, Dr. Caldwell Gaffney of Bowie, Md. Funeral arrangements and details of a memorial service are pending. Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.