Professor recalled as scholar, yeoman

Jean Alvares, a former member of the Bloomfield Open Space Committee who helped to establish community gardens at Pulaski and Milhouse parks, and was a Montclair State University professor of classics and humanities, died at home Jan. 16, after a long illness.

He was remembered by residents and colleagues as an erudite, but a down-to-earth man, equally energetic whether gardening or discussing Greek mythology. Alvares, who was 69 and lived in Halcyon Park, leaves his wife, Ling San. A private funeral was held Jan. 17.

Susan Hebert, another former Bloomfield Open Space Committee member, said Alvares constructed all the elevated garden beds at Pulaski Park.

“He was talented and brilliant,” she said. “He was always talking about Roman and Greek times and had an aesthetic way of thinking. If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know what we would have done at the garden. It’s a big, big loss.”

She said Alvares would talk about visiting his long-time girlfriend, who at the time was living in China.

“Talk about a long-distant relationship,” Hebert said.

Alvares married Ling in May of 2024.

Bloomfield Councilman Nicholas Joanow recalled Alvares as a unique individual, both “scholar and yeoman.”

“He had a PhD. and didn’t mind getting his hands dirty,” Joanow said. “He was very active with a real yearning for gardening. He always spoke about his wife and trips back and forth to China. The way he compared Chinese culture to ours was first-hand.”

Joanow said Alvares told him, about six months ago, that he was not feeling very well, but did not elaborate.

“He kept to himself with private health matters,” Joanow said. “But I could see a different temperament. Something was worrying him.”

Ling said she met her future husband in 2012 when she was a visiting scholar, at MSU, in linguistics. He was like a mentor to her, she said, giving her inspiration. After six months at MSU, she returned to Beijing where she was an associate professor of English.

“We communicated everyday and he continued to inspire me to finish my dissertation,” she said. “I helped him come to China to lecture on Greek mythology and he’d usually stay for two weeks, every year for six years. I came here for two years over eight years.”

Ling said she wanted independence and a career and expressed this to Alvares. He said he would wait for her until she retired, which would be five more years. Then Covid entered the picture and Ling signed a contract to teach in China. But the pandemic ended sooner than she anticipated and she was prepared to come to America.
“John told me not to break the contract,” she said. “I stayed six months to fulfill it, but now feel I should have retired early.”

She came to America to reside in August of 2023.

Amanda Waters, who served as the liaison between Pulaski Park gardeners and the township recreation department, said Alvares connected the gardeners to the Church on the Green Food Bank where their garden produce could be donated.

“He was my garden husband,” she said. “I took care of his garden bed when he was sick for more than a year-and-a-half.”

An MSU colleague, Leslie Wilson, said Alvares held a bachelor of arts in classical studies from the University of Florida, and from the University of Texas, a master’s in Latin and a PHD in the classics. Alvares, who was a faculty member for about 30 years and department chairman of Classics and Humanities for about 10 years, also held an engineering degree, according to Wilson.

“He was a scientist, at heart, who was an avid programmer who enjoyed coding and creating projects he would share with his students,” she said.
Alvares, Wilson said, frequently built computers.

“He enjoyed coding and creating projects that he would share with his students,” she said. “One of those projects was the staging of plays in the university, each spring, in the university amphitheater. His vivid imagination made him a unique instructor. His classes were one-of-a-kind. Part scientist and all scholar, students were surprised to see how he blended the Classics with technology. He was just as comfortable teaching classical Greek and Rome and Latin as he was explaining how Superman was based on the principles of classical mythology.”

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, Feb. 1, 2-6 p.m., at O’Boyle’s Funeral Home, 309 Broad St., Bloomfield.

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