In Memoriam

March 24, 2011

Adesimba Kumara Bashir, 1952-2002

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Our long-time colleague and dear friend, Adesimba Bashir, died on May 7, 2002. Born in Manhattan, Ade (whom many of you may have known as Pat Brown-Height) grew up in the Bronx, graduating from Preston High School in 1970. She graduated from NYU in 1974 with a BS in Elementary Education and received an MS in Educational Reading from Lehman College in 1976. At the time of her death she was working on her Ph.D. in English Education at NYU. Ade was an extraordinary teacher and mentor. She started her teaching career working in a number of elementary schools in the Bronx, and moved on to LaGuardia Community College, where she became a full-time member of its English department in 1986. She recently joined the faculty of Audrey Cohen College on Staten Island. We at ASHP/CML are grateful for our longtime association with Ade, who helped define our Making Connections program in the late 1980s and, more recently, served as a faculty fellow, mentoring high school teachers in our program. Ade’s boundless energy, her commitment to democratic education, and her generosity of spirit were an inspiration to us all. She was an honest, straightforward, creative, and deeply insightful colleague whom we will remember forever…