- By Lansing Funeral Home
- Obituaries
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During his three-decade teaching career at Ohio University and Wake Forest University Mark was an innovative teacher and dedicated research scientist. He published more than 100 research papers that crossed into the fields of biophysics, forestry, neurology and anthropology but was best known for his work with pea tendrils. In 1972, he developed the field of thigmomorphogenesis - - how the sense of touch affects plant growth, structure and development.
Mark was born in New York City on July 7, 1933. He was the only son of Deborah Sherry and Herman Jaffe. He graduated from George Washington High School in 1951 and was drafted into the Army and drove a half-track on the German/Czech border. He then earned a bachelors degree at City College of New York and a doctorate in vegetable crops at Cornell University in 1964.
During his graduate studies, Mark met Amy Cooke, a fellow graduate student. They married on Nov. 5, 1961, at Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell. He continued his studies at Yale University as a post-doctoral research fellow. He studied with Dr. Arthur Galston and began his work with pea tendrils. Mark became a professor at Ohio University in 1967 -- a position he kept until 1980. In the mid-70's, he took sabbaticals at The Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, Israel, the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, and at Boyce Thompson.
The family moved to Winston Salem, NC, in 1980 when Mark accepted the Charles H. Babcock Professor of Botany endowed chair at Wake Forest University. During that period, he returned to Israel three times to teach at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agriculture, as Permanent Visiting Professor. He also worked with NASA, studying how gravity affects plant growth in space.
In 1998 he retired from Wake Forest, but not from research. He moved to Lansing with Amy and set up a laboratory in an apartment above his garage and dubbed it the "Jaffe Institute for the Absorption of Jaffe Funds". They shortened it to "Jifajaf", where he continued his plant research. Mark kept regular lunch dates with Carl Leopold and Randy Wayne at Cornell to discuss their most recent research, which revolved around contractile roots and how a species of paramecium sensed the edge of the water droplet in which it swam.
"He found more joy in the search for the answer than in knowing the answer," Wayne said. "Mark loved every aspect of the search -- the initial crazy observation, designing equipment, doing the experiment itself and interpreting the results to discover the underlying unity of nature."
He read voraciously -- everything from calculus textbooks to Herodotus. He photographed lake birds, helped Amy complete crossword puzzles and enjoyed cracking jokes. He shunned honorifics and never boasted of his accomplishments. Throughout his life, Mark valued family above all else. For example, when Amy wore a cast on her thumb for three months, Mark fixed dinners. He also drove to her weekly storytelling job and turned the book pages for her. He was proud to call himself "Associate Storyteller and Page Turner".
A memorial service in his honor was held Oct. 17 at Anabel Taylor Hall. He was buried at Greensprings Natural Cemetery in Newfield, NY.
In addition to Amy, Mark is survived by daughter Jennifer (Carter) Lane, sons Benjamin (Salome) and Samuel (Myung Oak), and six grandchildren: Ivan, Anna, Naomi and Cai Jaffe and Dorothy and Sarah Lane.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in his name be sent to the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Friends of Magen David Adom or Doctors without Borders.