Mary Diaz didn't just greet her new neighbors. She brought them a cooked turkey.
She didn't just tell stories. Her friends recall her deep, raspy, voice that grew ever louder with the telling of her tales until her listeners' stomachs ached with laughter.
Diaz didn't just teach. Colleagues say she infused her students, many of whom would go on to teach refugees and immigrants, with her passion, her generosity and her determination to see refugee and immigrant children gain the tools to succeed.
Said her daughter Cristina Diaz: "She was the most generous person that I have ever known, who would do anything for anyone at any time, without hesitation. That was her duty. It was just who she was."
And "she is going to be missed, because of her unconditional love for people," said Marcia Rockwood, a Hamline University colleague and Diaz's sister-in-law.
Diaz, 70, an adjunct professor in English as a Second Language (ESL) program within the Hamline University School of Education, died Oct. 29 at United Hospital in St. Paul because of heart and lung complications. In a message earlier this week, Marcela Kostihova, Hamline's liberal arts dean, said "no one in Minnesota has done more for immigrant and refugee education than Mary Diaz," adding that Diaz was "masterful at connecting with parents."
She grew up in Fergus Falls, Minn., the oldest of six children and she was "a powerhouse," said Rockwood, who took swimming lessons from Mary as a 10-year-old and later married Mary's brother, Harvey.
"Her personality was very outgoing," Rockwood said. "Every time you would see Mary, you would remember her. She was very funny but selfless. She never bragged."
