On the 17th of August (8 17 2015) I started writing this post by saying:
"It is a sad day today.
This morning I was notified that Chris had passed away.
So here in the blog that she started I want to pay tribute to her life and legacy.
Many years ago I met Chris as my student in the Adult Degree Program (ADP) of Warner Pacific College."
Then I stopped and couldn't continue.
Yesterday during our Community Meeting that is part of the celebration of the new academic year we remembered Christine Tokonitz, and heard about so many great ways in which Chris related to us, as a friend, colleague, and family. How she was a "go getter" " a doer" and she would inspire all to be the best. It was noted that she had a big heart, commitment to everybody specially her students and good humor in the face of adversity.
So there is not much I can add to what was has been said already, but one word that I didn't hear was: humble.
Chris was humble, even as she was making an extreme effort to excel, she would do it with a deep sense of humility. The reason I know this is because when I met her as my student in Environmental studies (Adult Degree Program, 2007) I learned that she would always ask for more, more from her peer students, and more from her teachers. So I was challenged! One day she asked me if there was a book "Stewardship for dummies" that she would like to read. Please note her humility (and sense of humor), she didn't ask for a book for experts even though she wanted the whole "tamale", she did not try to present herself as a "top" student even though she was. She wanted to learn as a "dummy."
As teachers do, I replied that I didn't know if there was a book called "Stewardship for Dummies" but we'll find out together during the break. When we found that there was not such a book I asked her: why you don't write it? She replied that she couldn't do it (again showing humility) so I replied saying "YES you can". Why you don't start writing a blog that would lead to the book. She didn't know how to do it so I showed her. We became co-bloggers and in March of that year she published it to the world!
To see her first blogs you can link here.
Life went on and she couldn't continue writing here (in fact she started another blog) so she asked me to continue it, and I did.
During yesterday's morning Community Meeting both of my dear colleagues Sylvia LaVoie and Roger Martin asked us to keep Chris' memory alive in our hearts, I will do that for sure but now I want you to help me keep her legacy going. Please add your thoughts about stewardship here. You can email me your contributions so I can post it.
For more information go to
http://www.warnerpacific.edu/celebrating-the-life-of-professor-christine-tokonitz/
