Ayla Algar

1936 - 2024

Ayla Algar
04/16/1936 - 06/23/2024
Ayla Esen Algar, dearly beloved wife, mother and grandmother, has passed away, in St. Augustine, Florida, on June 23rd, 2024, at the age of 88.
She was born in Erzurum, Eastern Turkey, in April 1936, and it was there and in Samsun on the shores of the Black Sea that she received her initial education. In her early teens, she gained admission to a prestigious girls' boarding school in Adana, South Eastern Turkey. After graduating from high school, she was admitted to the academy of the Istanbul opera, and was poised to enroll when her father, conservative in orientation and fearful of a life in the arts, convinced her otherwise.
Instead, she embarked on a career in education, qualifying as a high school teacher with a concentration on English. This led to a number of appointments in different cities, and it was in one such town that she met her first husband, John Wirsig. She accompanied him back to America, settling in Richmond, California, and bore him three sons, Dennis, Larry and James, the last-named of whom passed away in 2000.
She began taking classes at the University of California at Berkeley in a variety of subjects, ultimately earning an M.A. in Turkish language and literature. She would later marry Hamid Algar, a professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, and bore him a son, Selim.
Ayla later taught Turkish at different levels at Berkeley and was appointed Lecturer in 1990. Recognized for her development of innovative textbooks in the field, she retained her post until her retirement in 2013.
Language pedagogy was by no means her only sphere of creativity. Long known for her mastery of her native cuisine, she wrote two highly acclaimed books on Turkish cookery: Classical Turkish Cooking (New York, 1991) and The Complete Book of Turkish Cuisine (London,1995), and contributed to a collective volume, Mediterranean The Beautiful Cookbook (San Francisco, 1994). She was also a frequent contributor to the Food Section of the San Francisco Chronicle and the digest, Petits Propos Culinaires. Putting her skills to use, she regularly hosted exuberant gatherings at her home in Berkeley, invitations to which were greatly welcomed.
No enumeration of her achievements and virtues will do her full justice. May she rest in peace and find tranquillity in the next world.