Esther Yae Iwanaga

SALEM - Esther Iwanaga passed away at home in Salem in the early morning of January 30 with her son Matthew and faithful cat Torche by her side. She is survived by Matthew, and by her brothers Paul and Michiro Iwanaga.

Esther was born on April 23, 1945 to Haruko and Morio Iwanaga in Honolulu, Hawaii. She attended Farrington High School where she was valedictorian of her senior class. She became a French major at the University of Hawaii, then completed her BA at the University of Connecticut. The high quality of her academics allowed her admission to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She then enrolled in the French Master’s program at Middlebury College. Her actual studies took place at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. Her connection to France endured throughout her life, and she returned many times well into her retirement.

Her Master’s degree complete, she returned to Connecticut and became a French language instructor at the University of Hartford. She began dating Daniel Altieri and moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. There she entered the advertising industry as an employee of the Dentsu Corporation. Initially a copywriter, she was promoted to account manager and finally advertisement producer, a position which had her traveling to Texas and Spain for photo shoots.

Dan and Esther married in 1970. When they moved back to Dan’s hometown of Branford, Connecticut a few years later, they built a ferro-cement sailboat that they named Kalihi, after the Honolulu suburb where Esther had grown up. Kalihi launched in 1977 and they shortly began living aboard. Esther left her advertising job, and the couple went into the lobstering business together. Their son Matthew was born into the beautifully elemental home that Dan and Esther had created on the water. In 1985, the family sailed to Salem, Massachusetts. Although Esther and Dan divorced in 1990, their friendship endured throughout Esther’s life.

In 1985, Esther enrolled in the Applied Linguistics Masters program at Umass Boston. Her second MA complete, Esther initiated a long and distinguished career as an educator. She began teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at UMB, where she remained devoted to her immigrant students over the course of 21 years in the field. She also taught at Simmons and later Wellesley College, where she specialized in teaching English writing skills to international students. She was known for a respectful style, helping students to take initiative and to take pride in their backgrounds and native languages. The result was a fully engaged class in which students felt comfortable speaking (and developing their speaking skills) and writing from a wide variety of perspectives. She was patient and persistent, devoting a great deal of out-of-class time to tutoring sessions so that her students would flourish and feel confident about their writing skills.

Esther also taught Asian-American Literature at UMB and worked in the tutoring center for first-year writers at Wellesley. She served as Vice-president of MATSOL, the statewide teachers association for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. She also co-edited a highly regarded anthology with her friend Prof. Rajini Srikanth, titled Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing (Rutgers UP, 2001). The collection was, in a way, the first of its kind, in that it covered multiple genres (memoir, poetry, fiction and drama), and writers from across the Asian diaspora.

In 2010, Esther retired to Hawaii, returning to visit Salem every year. Faced with a grave medical diagnosis in 2020, she permanently moved back to Salem, where she was surrounded by the love of family and friends.

Esther lamented never having become an artist, as if oblivious to the fact that she was one. She was a skilled photographer, developing work influenced by her hero André Kertész in the darkroom she inevitably set up whenever time and space allowed. She sketched, knitted, crocheted, upholstered, made intricate origami jewelry, created prints and poetry, cut photos into strips and wove them together, among many other things difficult to describe. She was fascinated by process. She would stop and watch workmen in the street, tolerating their catcalls with effort, because the busy activity fueled her imagination. She said her favorite artworks were sketches, drafts, and unfinished works-in-progress, because she could see the artist’s thoughts and movements unfolding in time.

Depending on the situation, Esther could be the silliest or most serious person you ever met. This makes sense when you consider that she regarded herself a Taoist, as followers of the Way must take some delight in the absurd. Perhaps as an extension of her Taoism, she became fascinated by Tai Chi in her retirement, meeting with a small dedicated group seemingly every day to practice in local parks and YMCAs around Honolulu. Her interest in martial arts slowly but surely expanded. She learned to handle a sword with confidence, as if to say, “watch out world, I can be fierce too.”

Esther loved plenty of normal stuff though, like puzzles, cooking, gardening, piano, murder mysteries, cats and dogs, Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings. She avoided being the center of attention, but if you were there when she was drinking wine and listening to Nanci Griffith by candlelight after dinner, you would discover two things. She had a lovely singing voice; and love, tenacious undying love, was the value held highest in her heart.

ARRANGEMENTS: Relatives and friends are invited to a Celebration of Esther's life which will be held at Winter Island Park - Function Hall, 50 Winter Island Road, Salem on Saturday, May 2nd from 2 P.M. to 8 P.M. Assisting the family with the arrangements is O'Donnell Cremations - Funerals - Celebrations, 84 Washington Sq. (at Salem Common) SALEM. In lieu of flowers, donations in Esther's memory may be made to, Doctors Without Borders USA, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030To share a memory or offer a condolence, please visit www.odonnellfuneralservice.com.