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FUNERAL HOME

Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapels

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Jay Meek Obituary

Meek, Jay Age 70 Of Minneapolis, MN Survived by wife of 41 years, Martha George Meek; daughter, Anna George Meek (Matthew Gladue); granddaughter, Sarah Meek. Jay Meek, poet and professor, received the Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants. Recently he read his poetry by invitation at the National Library of Congress. He was the winner of the Pushcart Prize as well as numerous other awards. He is the author of eight books of poetry, an epistolary novel and is editor of numerous anthologies. His work has appeared in over 100 journals. He was the poetry editor of North Dakota Quarterly for many years. For nearly 20 years, he was the director of the Creative Writing program at the University of North Dakota. He also taught at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sarah Lawrence College, Wake Forest University, Memphis State University, St. John's University in Newfoundland, Colby College (Maine) and Syracuse University. Beloved husband, father, grandfather and teacher. Lover of baseball, travel, music and exactitude. Man of ferocity, humor, compassion and integrity. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Washburn-McReavy Davies Chapel 612-377-2203

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Published by Pioneer Press on Nov. 5, 2007.

Memories and Condolences
for Jay Meek

15 Entries

madelyn camrud

November 12, 2020

Dear Jay, I can't tell you how much I miss you. Right now and always. I continue to write, a bumbling poet because of you and you're encouragement, but now you are gone. No one can replace you as a reader and teacher. My missing is rather selfish I suppose. You wife and daughter miss you for different reasons. You were so much to so many here on earth. I wonder if you know our struggles?

Sharon Carson

November 19, 2007

Martha, So sorry to hear, and we are thinking of you...Sharon and Lucy

Susan Mibeck

November 18, 2007

Dear Martha,

My husband Blaise and I were so sad to hear of Jay's passing. We both remember him with great affection and respect. I am so glad to have had him as a teacher. He was such a kind man, and such an excellent poet and teacher. Please know you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Yahya Frederickson

November 15, 2007

Dear Martha,
My father, my wife, and I were all deeply saddened to hear about Jay's passing. Know that you and Jay and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.

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Madelyn Camrud

November 12, 2007

Dear Martha and Anna,
I am utterly sad, and have been since I heard of Jay's passing.
Jay was so very kind to me. I will never forget him. His support of my poetry from the very beginning has kept me writing all these years. My heart goes out to you.
Your loss is so very great, but you can be proud and happy for the time you had with Jay.

Leslie Werden

November 9, 2007

Martha -- I am sorry to hear about your loss and hope that you find comfort in your friends and family in the weeks and months to come. Leslie Werden (UND 2001-2006)

Janet Rex

November 7, 2007

Martha,

I am deeply saddened to receive this news about Jay. As I read the e-mail notice from Ursula Hovet, the UND carillon chimes as if in a keen poetic tribute to Jay. You and Jay helped me a great deal in my life path and with my own writing, and I deeply appreciate the gentle guidance that he gave in his works, in his classes, and in his poetic assistance.

Peace be with you and your family,

Janet Spaeth

November 7, 2007

Martha, with great sadness, and with great love--my condolences. Jay was a tremendous poet, a wonderful writer, and a kind human being.

Heaven is a little brighter but earth is mourning this loss to us all.

Janet Spaeth

Jane

November 7, 2007

Dear Martha and Anna,

Here in my writing room in Ohio, Jay is near, just a quick reach to my bookshelf. Also Jay is near when I think of Tuesday afternoons on the second floor of Merrifield Hall, where he would place my poems on his wide, ready desk, select a pen from his soup can holder, and speak to me of language, of history, and of art. How many times I have asked him for help and inspiration, and how easily I can picture him at his office window, hands clasped behind his back, looking out like a ship’s captain.
His integrity, his humor, his passion for the word, his precision, his kindness, his warmth.

Know that Gary and I are thinking of your family with much much love.

Elizabeth Behr

November 6, 2007

Dear Martha,
My condolences to you and your family on Jay's passing. You will all be in my prayers tonight.
Sincere best wishes and Peace.

Betsy

Laura & Franklin

November 5, 2007

There is little as comfortingly heroic as the exercise of civility in the midst of war and its atrocities. One thinks of Wanda Landowska in Paris recording Scarlatti sonatas while in the background anti-aircraft fire sounded, cut into the groove... "After the Storm" the great man's work will live on. With deep, deep love

Carissa Green

November 5, 2007

Dear Prof. Meek and Family:

Worlds opened up for me when Jay read (recited, performed) poems in our classrooms. His words of encouragement affirmed I was on the right road -- and to keep travelling.

Together you gave me my first glimpse into the contemporary poetry world, and I am grateful.

Students come and go, but they take the best of their teachers with them.

With love and thanks,
Carissa Green
UND class of '94

Maureen Reardon- Weber

November 5, 2007

Hello Anna,

I am Maureen (Ray Reardon's Daughter)of Rakhma Joy Home. I'm so sorry for your loss of your dad Jay. I have such fond memories of him. Remember he and you dancing on Memorial Day weekend on the Lawn at The Rakhma Joy House to several tunes "Gonna take a Sentimental Journey." He was so happy that day and full of life dancing with you, he had such a huge smile on his face, it just glowed! It almost seemed like he was remembering his past as if for a brief moment his memory all came back.

Whenever I came to the Rakhma House during the Summer and Fall months to visit my dad on Saturdays during the Lunch hour, I'd always ask Elizabeth and Jay at the dining table to lead us in song, I would suggest a song and start the song out but I didn't know the words and they could sing them all! He and MaryJane were our loudest singers! I'd have them sing "I've been working on the railroad", "Sentimental Journey", "Oh Beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ..." It's amazing how he and Elizabeth knew all the words and my dad Ray would just listen but no singing. I always remember Jay liked to wear my dad's Train Engineer Railroad Hat. I thought he must like trains, or know something about trains, because he also liked to look at my dads little black photo album book of pictures of when my dad was the Train Engineer for the Minnesota Zephyr Dinner Train in Stillwater MN. It was endearing.

I will also remember Jay having the biggest and Brightest Smile there at the Rakhma Joy House! He was always smiling or laughing.

I hope you and your mom and daughter are all doing ok. It's going to be really hard not seeing Jay there, I'll miss him at his spot he ate at, at the end of the dining table. I know the staff and his family(the other Alz.patients) were all saddened when my sister Sheila arrived on Saturday. The Staff told her it was a very hard day for them because they lost Jay.

I know Jay is in a much better place and looking down on you and happy that he had such good care at Rakhma Joy and even had some fun there too!

I'd like to send some pictures to you that I took at Rakhma Joy these past several months.

God Bless you and your mom,
Maureen Reardon Weber
Rochester, MN
[email protected]

Dolores Schuh

November 5, 2007

Dear Martha,
I was so sorry to hear of Jay's death. Fr. Kilian had told me that he has been ill for some time.
Please be assured of my thoughts and prayers.
All best, Dolores

Marilyn Biery

November 5, 2007

Hello Anna and family,
Your Cathedral Choir friends are all thinking of you, and sending you all our support and encouragement as you mourn the loss of your dad. We are glad you could sing the Requiem with us, and hope that it offered some solace to you.

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