Margaret Jean Hay

Dr. Margaret Jean Hay, 78, of Tempe AZ and Haverhill MA passed away on July 11, 2022. Jean leaves behind a diverse group of family, friends and colleagues scattered around the world. Immediate survivors include her son Chris, brother Jack and sister Sally.

Born and raised in Southern California, Jean got her first taste of international travel when she spent her senior year in high school as an AFS exchange student in Norway. As an undergraduate at Stanford University she spent a semester in France, and a summer in Ivory Coast as part of Operation Crossroads Africa. She graduated from Stanford summa cum laude, then earned Masters and doctorate degrees at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her graduate studies included two months in Egypt and two years in Kenya. Later, research grants and pleasure travel would keep Jean globe-trotting for years to come. Of particular meaning were return trips to Norway, Scotland and Kenya with her husband and son, reuniting with “adopted” families from earlier travels. As her son’s educational path took him overseas, she delighted in visiting him in France and Japan.

A well-known professor of African Studies, Jean began her career at Wellesley College, then moved to the African Studies Center at Boston University. She was a creative teacher who loved mentoring students; her weekly seminar series was a fixture among Boston academics; and as a scholar, she pioneered the use of African oral histories to counterbalance the views of Eurocentric writers. Her articles were published in numerous anthologies; she authored several books on African and women’s history; two of her co-edited collections African Women South of the Sahara and African Women and the Law count among the first and most widely cited publications to center women in this field; and her African Novels in the Classroom is now a classic. She served as editor for the International Journal of African Historical Studies; as founder and co-editor of the journal African Economic History; as co-principal investigator for “African Expressions of the Colonial Experience” funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities; as co-founder for Heinemann’s Social History of Africa series, and editor for their Africa-Caribbean series; and as editor for Africa and the Middle East at Lynne Rienner Publishers. She retired in 2005.

Jean had a rich personal life. Leaving Kenya in the early 1970s, she sold her car to Peace Corps volunteer Gerry Molina. The two knew each other from parties in Kisumu; upon returning to the US, they started dating in Boston. Auspiciously, their first date was at a Harambee dance doubling as fundraiser for a local Kenyan. From their wedding until Gerry’s death, the Hay-Molina household was known for a love of music, dancing and Christmas caroling parties. Jean was an avid reader and organized book clubs; a fine hostess who could cook “in many languages”; and an accomplished and prolific quilter. After her husband died, Jean followed her love of sunshine and moved to Mesa AZ, enjoying life at Leisure World as a member of the Barbershop Belles and a local theater group. She took it upon herself to bring jokes to her water aerobics classes.

Aware that her cognitive challenges were becoming significant, Jean moved herself to Friendship Village in Tempe AZ. Founded by retired ASU faculty, Friendship Village offered security as her dementia progressed. The family is grateful to Friendship Village and Hospice of the Valley for the excellent care they offered Jean in the last decade of her life. We also wish to recognize and thank Deanna and Richard Long for the invaluable friendship they offered throughout her Arizona years.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. If you wish to honor Jean, please consider a gift in her name to a favorite charity. You are also welcome to make a donation to the Jean Hay Charitable Foundation, an endowed non-profit she established in 2012. The fund makes annual gifts to various causes important to her. Gifts to the Jean Hay Charitable Foundation can be mailed to PO Box 493, Lincoln RI, 02865.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.mariposagardens.com for the Hay family.