Earl Jagust

Earl Jagust passed away peacefully at home in Manhattan on June 23, 2024, at the age of 101.  Earl had a long, happy, and fulfilling life.  He was a voracious reader, amateur fencer, gifted potter, and did a mean imitation of Groucho Marx.

Born in Manhattan on January 16, 1923, Earl was a true and loyal New Yorker, never living further away from the city than Nassau and Westchester counties and always championed it as the best city in the world.  Earl’s parents, Tillie and Sam had immigrated to the U.S. from the Pale of Settlement in the early 1900s and had three sons—the oldest was Eugene, named for Eugene V. Debs and Earl and Mortimer (known as Morton or Morty), the younger twins. 

Earl grew up in the Bronx and Manhattan; he enjoyed telling people that part of his formative years were in Harlem, during the “Harlem Renaissance.” His father was a dentist, which made the family middle class and, although not wealthy, they were one of the first in their neighborhood to own a car.  There were financial ups and downs during his childhood, especially because of the Great Depression.

Earl attended public schools, graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School.  His politics were formed early: his parents were both socialists, and Earl was proud to join the Young Peoples Socialist League in high school.  He identified politically as a socialist throughout his life and only occasionally acquiesced to be branded a democrat.  (He was especially excited when Bernie Sanders, a fellow socialist, ran for president.)

After high school, he attended Brooklyn College but left after a year to join U.S. Government Service to avoid or postpone being drafted for World War II, where he was trained to build and repair radios and amplifiers.  As a good socialist, he was anti-war but had mixed feelings about WW II because he knew Hitler had to be stopped.

In 1943, Earl was called up for service and spent the war in Europe.  Because of his poor eyesight he never saw battle; instead, he was placed in a Special Service Company, where he showed movies to the troops. One of his war-related boasts was that he showed the European premiere of “Saratoga Trunk” (Starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman) to his unit.  He apparently also honed his gambling skills in the army, winning $40 shooting craps on the boat from the US to England—and continued to be a fierce pinochle and poker player for many years.  All in all, as he often said, he spent 2 years, 8 months and 17 days in the army and hated every minute. 

Returning from the war, Earl used the GI Bill to earn a BA from Brooklyn College, changing his major from science to English, and then a master’s degree from Columbia University.  With that education, he taught high school for approximately 40 years, first at Far Rockaway High School and then at the United Nations International School.

Students from his high school classes remember that he made learning fun because he had fun teaching.  To keep students excited about literature, he often read from books or acted out portions of Shakespeare plays, sometimes while climbing on chairs, desks and radiators.  He was also known for re-stamping a footprint on the ceiling of his classroom after an original had been painted over—apparently because he used it as the basis for a journalism class writing assignment. 

Earl was the Far Rockaway fencing team coach for several years and saw one of his team attend the Olympics. He continued fencing into his 70s and was fond of fencing with his twin, Morty, who was left-handed; the two of them always said that they were mirror images of each other in the matches and loved competing. 

After retirement, Earl took up pottery and became an accomplished potter.  He had his own potter’s wheel and workshop at home and produced hundreds of bowls, plates, platters, and pitchers (and would have appreciated the alliteration in there). Family members and friends have collections of his wares, as do many others who bought his pieces at various art fairs. 

Earl had two long and happy marriages.  In 1947 he married Evelyn Metzger, who he met in a Catskills resort, and was married to her for 27 years until her death in 1975.  In 1977 he married Lynn Kearney, who he met at a teacher’s union rally, and the two high school English teachers remained married for 47 years until he passed away.  Throughout their marriage, they cared for each other and in his last days Lynn lovingly cared for him so he could die in peace at home.

Besides Lynn, Earl also leaves behind his son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Robyn, his daughter Rose, and nieces and nephews Nina, Mark, Linda, Nancy and Sally.  His brother Eugene and twin Morty pre-deceased him.