Karen Jean Calfas Polarek

Our beloved Karen Jean Calfas Polarek was born on February 28, 1962, in Santa Monica, California, the second child of John Athon Calfas and Margarethe Wennes Egertson Calfas. She was baptized on June 10, 1962, at Concordia Lutheran Church in Los Angeles. By the late sixties, Karen had three siblings: Diane, Scott and Christine.

As Karen grew up, she moved with her family from Pacific Palisades to Encino, California, where she took piano lessons, became a Girl Scout, and learned how to ride a Schwinn called “Lil Chik.” She was confirmed at Bethel Lutheran Church in Encino on Palm Sunday, April 11, 1976, and received her first communion the following week. For years, one of her favorite activities was singing in the large youth choir at Bethel, the Life Assurance Company.

In 1980, Karen graduated from Montclair College Preparatory School in Van Nuys, California. Then she was off to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and received her B.A. in Psychology in 1985. Karen moved to San Diego and entered the joint clinical psychology graduate program at University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. During the course of her studies, she did an internship in behavioral medicine at Brown University, School of Medicine, in Providence, Rhode Island. Karen earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1990, and, in 1993, she became a licensed psychologist in the state of California specializing in behavioral medicine.

After she received her Ph.D., she worked at SDSU for almost two decades, beginning as a grant writer and becoming the Director of Health Promotion. During her time there, she worked extensively on the PACE project with Dr. Kevin Patrick and Dr. James Sallis, which developed “tools to help primary care physicians counsel their patients on becoming more physically active” (from www.paceproject.org). These tools are now in use throughout the University of California system, as well as in many other places internationally.

In 2009, Karen moved to UCSD and spent a decade there, first as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Wellness and then as Executive Director of Student Health and Wellbeing, a position she held until her passing. Her areas of responsibility at UCSD included overseeing Student Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Sexual Assault Resource Center, Campus Recreation and the Wellness Center. One of her main foci was the development of the new Student Health and Wellbeing Center in the Triton Pavilion that is to be built on campus. She was passionately devoted to this project and was working toward a center that would be state-of-the-art and an inspiration to student wellness programs at universities everywhere. Karen has been referred to by her colleagues as a brilliant researcher, a compassionate supervisor and a visionary leader.

Karen loved her profession, and she was also very devoted to her family. Karen met her future husband, Thomas Matthew Polarek, in October 1992. They were married on August 24, 1996, after a surprise marriage proposal many months before. On July 9, 2002, they were overjoyed to welcome the first addition to their family, Jonathan Thomas Calfas Polarek. When their daughter Jordan Marie Calfas Polarek was born three years later on July 12, 2005, they felt their family and their joy was complete.

Karen shared many special things with her children. To mention only a few, she had a talent for baking and decorating extraordinary, specialty cakes for and with her children. Jordan also loves to bake and spent many hours in the kitchen with her mom. With Jonathan, Karen shared her love of music, especially guitar, their favorite instrument to play. Karen also enthusiastically supported Jonathan's love of surfing and would watch him whenever she could. Traveling to dance competitions together was something she always cherished doing with Jordan. Karen was truly proud of both her children and was a very happy mother.

In the larger family, Karen was known for loving to decorate for holidays large and small, enjoying the setting of a beautiful table for special events, and indulging in a small bowl of ice cream any night she could get away with it. Karen also helped many others in the family from her siblings to nieces to cousins’ children whenever she could. She had a generous spirit.

Throughout her life, Karen had a deep faith in God which sustained her. This was a faith she was raised in and then embraced even more profoundly as a teenager. She was a devoted member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Encinitas and loved to worship there with her family.

Karen’s husband Tom has said that there was no one who didn’t like her. He’s right. She was smart, beautiful and caring. Tom said she was a trailblazer who also changed people’s lives – all true. She was a wonderful daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, and colleague.

The pain of losing Karen is exceeded only by the blessing of having had her in our lives for as long as we did.

“And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Shakespeare

Karen is survived by her husband Thomas Polarek, son Jonathan Polarek, and daughter Jordan Polarek; as well as by her mother Margarethe Calfas, siblings Diane Calfas, Scott Calfas, and Christine Calfas; and a large extended family.