Irene Horowitz

IN MEMORY OF IRENE HOROWITZ (by Bruce London, her son)

After nearly 89 years, Irene Horowitz has gone on to another life. Born Irene Louise Thompson 3-8-1927 in Springfield, MA, she had a difficult childhood but spoke fondly of many summers spent at Cape Ann, near Boston. Her dream of retiring to Cape Ann was sadly never realized.

As a teenager, Irene left home early to study music in New York City. There she met and married a returning WWII Navy officer and had her only child, Bruce London, in 1946. After a divorce, she moved to Seattle, where she sang soprano in the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Irene was a great friend of San Francisco’s Zen Center, having served in many capacities, including Secretary in the mid 1960’s. After ZC moved from Bush Street, she moved near the new Page Street location, where she sat zazen almost daily until her health deteriorated in the 1990’s. In 1995, she gave interviews to David Chadwick of “The Crooked Cucumber”, providing insight into the lives of Suzuki Roshi and other ZC luminaries. For a fascinating glimpse into ZC history and the life of Irene herself, please google Irene Horowitz Crooked Cucumber.

Irene’s Buddhist odyssey began at New York City’s First Zen Institute in 1958. In 1964 she visited a Zen friend in Seattle and heard about SFZC. On her way back to NYC and a sociology teaching career at City College of New York, she visited ZC and was so pleased she delayed her return for several weeks. Then ZC gave her a going away party, after which Suzuki Roshi surprised her by saying, “I don’t think you should go back to New York. You should stay here and practice.” So she did, for the next 35 years.

My mother dressed mostly in black and had waist-length black hair. Never driving a car, she bicycled all over the Bay area. She supported herself as office manager for a local neurosurgeon. She attended many Bay Area Buddhist groups, and in 1966 was ordained in the Cho Ge sect of Korean Zen. However, she always considered SFZC her Buddhist home. After her stint as ZC Secretary, Irene played a “behind-the-scenes” part in many ZC endeavors, including the idea to tape dharma talks.

Irene began suffering from chronic, unresolved pain after a surgery in 1989. In 1999 she moved to Glen Rose, Texas to be closer to her son Bruce and his wife Marti. For a few years, she lived in Still Waters, a retirement home on the Paluxy River, where Bruce and Marti also resided. In 2004 she moved to a Glen Rose nursing home, then to a similar facility in nearby Granbury, where Burce and Marti then lived. She entered hospice care in February 2015, and died peacefully in her sleep on December 2nd. Bruce was blessed to be at her side, holding her hand, when she took her final breath. My mother was unsure about any afterlife, including reincarnation, but on two occasions in her final week she told her hospice nurse she had dreamed of going to heaven. {I, Bruce, believe her soul to be in the hands of God.}

Irene is survived by Bruce and Marti and by five grandchildren: Kevin London and wife Krista of Austin, TX; Lisa Faust and husband Adam of Atlanta, GA; Kimberly Brill and husband Max of Suwanee, GA; Jim Hakes and wife Andi of Dallas, TX; and Kelley Routh and husband Doug of Broken Arrow, OK. Her eight great-grandchildren are Jackson(9); Gavin(5), Tyler(2), Hannah(2), Beck(8), Hugh(6), and Adalley(16); Grace(1). Irene’s ex-husband, Dean London, lives in Granbury at age 97 years, 8 months.

My mother has asked that her ashes be scattered on the Pacific coastal waters near Green Gulch Farm, a Zen Center training center and organic farm in Marin County. Her journey toward enlightenment was not finished—Is anyone’s?—but she received and gave much light and love along the way. May her memory inspire others to do likewise.

Dear Reader: My son Bruce wrote most of this in April 2015, and I approved it. May your own quest for enlightenment lead to much peace, beauty and wisdom.

Love and gassho, IRENE