A00127 - Jaafar Kassem-Ali, Amherst College Class of 1968, Azania Secondary School (Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania) Graduate, Columbia University M.A., CUNY Hunter College African Literature Professor

 

In Memory

Jaafar Kassem-Ali came to Amherst as a transfer student from Corning Community College, where he was a junior college All-American soccer player. At Amherst, he became a first team Division I All-American in 1966. The soccer team at the time played the Ivies and regularly beat them. Jaafar led Amherst over Harvard in both 1966 and 1967, 2–0 and 4–0. In 1966, he assisted on both goals and, in 1967, scored two and assisted on another. In 1970 and 1974, he, Rob Sherman ’68 and Cleanthes Nicolaides ’68 scored all the seven goals in victories by the alumni over the varsity. His Amherst teammates described Jaafar as extremely modest, a great teammate and a joy to play with.

After Amherst, Jaafar earned a master’s degree in international relations at Columbia University and, in 1972, began a long career teaching African literature and political science at Hunter College, retiring in 2010. His students described him as extremely knowledgeable, demanding but fair. 

As his wife, Lourdes, noted, soccer remained his passion. He came up to New Haven, Conn., from New York on weekends to play with his lifelong friend Cleanthes Nicolaides ’68 on a Greek and European team. Until he was 70, he also played on a variety of Latin American club teams in the New York Metropolitan area, always a much sought-after teammate.

Jaafar died on Aug. 26, 2023, after a courageous two-year battle with kidney cancer. He maintained his unfailing good nature to the end, continuing to be the family jokester, cook his favorite dishes from his native Tanzania, bake celebrated pies, instruct his grandsons in soccer and pass on the love of the sport to them. Jaafar is survived by Lourdes, daughter Ayshah and her two children, and daughter Sorayya and her three children. 

Felix Springer ’68 

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Contact

Amherst Name

• Jaafar Kassem-Ali

Family

Amherst Relatives

• Lourdes Kassem-Ali W'68

Personal

No data available

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Professional

Employment Information

Former

• Professor

  CUNY: Hunter College

  Start:

  01/1969

  End:

  12/2017

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Amherst

Reunion Class

• 1968

Graduation Year

• 1968

Major(s)

• Political Science

Other Academic

Secondary Schools

• Azania Secondary School

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Amherst

Volunteering

• Alumni Fund

  Role:

  Associate Agent

  Start:

  March 2005

  End:

  March 2005
• Alumni Fund

  Role:

  Associate Agent

Athletics

• Men's Soccer

Fraternity

• Psi Upsilon Fraternity

Extracurricular Activities

• International Relations Club

Post-Graduate

No data available

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