Jean Kauvar left us this week in ripe old age after a valiant struggle with blindness. And struggle she did, to retain the wide range of her intellectual, social and familial interests.
Mrs. Kauvar was a paradox, a denizen of two eras, a beautiful combination that virtually no one any more values or even considers. On the one hand, she was the promoter of her husband, the late, highly respected Dr. Abe Kauvar. She put him in the forefront. As if that were not enough, she actively promoted the legacy of Dr. Kauvar’s father, the late, venerable Rabbi Charles E. H. Kauvar of BMH (the longest serving pulpit rabbi in Denver history). Her love of both her husband and her pious father-in-law were palpable, even reverent.
On the other hand, Jean Kauvar was her own person, a perceptive commentator, a reader with wide interests, a connossieur of culture, a person not shy about sharing her opinions, always informed and never overbearing. She was a real lady. It was her husband — and it was she. Both. Not a combination seen much anymore.
Mrs. Kauvar’s struggle with blindness was heroic. For the longest time she did not let it drive her from her home. She never let it drive her from her interests in others, still less from the joys she derived from her children and grandchildren.
Jean Kauvar occupied a unique place in our community, a place of dignity, of encouragement of leadership, of articulate love of Judaism. At the end, hers was a lonely place, as virtually all of her contemporaries had passed on.
One would never sense that loneliness, however, in speaking with her. If the sight was dulled, the mind was not — not in the slightest. We send condolences to her family, and to ourselves. She is deeply missed.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
