Jeff Polk Memorial

Tribute to Jeffery Polk from his wife Joyce O’ Halloran

Jeff had a difficult childhood. However, he found joy in working with his hands: fixing things, building things and creating art. Whenever Jeff wanted to make or fix something, he would learn how to do it, whether from books, from other people, or from trial and error. Then he shared that knowledge with other people. If you had a problem, he could tell you how to solve it or who could help you solve it; Jeff was the pre-computer Google. After Jeff was opened in Subud in February 1993, he gained a wider perspective and a loving community. Jeff was happily involved in improvements to the Portland Subud Center: he found flooring from the ReBuilding Center, among other projects.

Jeff enjoyed describing his life experiences. One story he liked to tell involved two brothers who were temporarily removed from their father’s home because of neglect; their father liked living “under the radar.” While they lived with us in foster care, Jeff helped them with their homework and made sure they attended school. Their school records showed so much improvement that their teachers began to expect more from them. After living with us for a few months, they returned to their father’s care. Now that their teachers were aware of his sons’ abilities, their father felt that his family’s lifestyle was at risk and he was very angry: “You’ve ruined my kids!”

Jeff lived an adventurous life; his many friends will remember his stories and his extraordinary kindnesses.

Tribute by Ilene Pevec

Our family met Jeff Polk when we moved to Portland in 1992 and became neighbors with him and Joyce in Southwest Portland. We had a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration early that October and invited Jeff and Joyce and other neighbors to join us. We introduced them to Subud via casual conversation at that dinner and he and Joyce joined Subud quite soon after that. They entered our Subud group enthusiastically.

We quickly discovered Jeff’s enormous generosity. 1992 was a serious year in the AIDS crisis. There was no effective treatment. Lusijah Marx was starting a non-profit clinic, YES Quest, to have a holistic treatment center with various modalities to care for people with HIV. She needed a photocopier to be able to copy recipes for the nutrition program. Jeff paid for me to take a grant-writing workshop so I could support YES-Quest by writing a grant. We got that grant, the first one for Yes Quest and the photocopier did its job. I have been writing grants ever since for a variety of nonprofits, thanks to the skills that Jeff helped me develop.

Jeff and Joyce were foster parents for boys. They had a games room and a computer lab for the kids and for Jeff and Joyce’s professional needs. They offered me the use of their computers when I decided to go back to college to finish my BA at Marylhurst College nearby. I could not have done this important undertaking without their computers and a quiet writing place.

Jeff also hired me to do bookkeeping for his apartment rental business and paid me to paint apartments when a tenant moved out. There was a very high unemployment rate in Portland and I had not found a regular job and still had five children at home so having a part-time job helped a lot.

As a revolutionary math professor, Joyce attended an education activists’ conference and felt I should go because of my work in multi-cultural and arts education, so Jeff paid my entry fee. I met a team of parents and a principal from an elementary school there. This school brought together science and art with a school garden full of food and fabulous arts projects, including beautiful murals. It was my first introduction to school gardens, which in a few years became my professional focus. Jeff’s generosity pointed me to the work for the second half of my life, an extraordinary gift.

Jeff helped everyone around him in a myriad of ways. He and Joyce hosted volleyball games for kids and adults, potlucks and always welcomed everyone. He gave away small grants each year from the Polk Family Foundation that helped Subud Portland and many community organizations. He did everything he could to help the foster boys in their care. We were very lucky that we had Jeff as a neighbor, friend, and Subud brother. Our whole family will always be grateful for all that Jeff did for us and the broader community.
May his soul rest in peace with God’s Grace always guiding him.

Jim O’Halloran Remembers Jeff Polk

Jeff always had unexpectedly different angles and perceptions of life in general, and when I took the time and care to understand what I could of his perceptions, I was rewarded with a fuller understanding of the subject.

First of all, Jeff was very generous. Joyce and Jeff provided accommodation in their home in Seattle to any Subud folk who needed it for quite some time, until another place worked out.

Likewise, after moving to Whidbey Island and purchasing property there, they helped enormously with attempts to build on that property.

When visiting Jeff and Joyce in Portland, their openness, full house, and generosity in all ways became a way of life worthy of emulation.

Best of all, they had the good fortune of meeting their Portland neighbors, Illene and Lawrence Pevec, who introduced us all to Subud!

Jeff Polk: Patron of Philosophical-Comedy Theatre

by Fayra Teeters

When my husband Don and I first moved to Portland in 1998, we’d just climbed off an over-the-road truck and trailer rig, and literally had no place to stay. Jeff and Joyce without batting an eye, invited us to stay in their guest room for however long it took to find an apartment and jobs. Oddly enough, the jobs came quicker than the apartment – thanks to the can-do diligence of Benedict Herrman who was serving as a job placement counselor at that time. And then after a week’s time, we finally landed an affordable apartment, and somewhat reluctantly left the very warm and welcoming embrace of Jeff and Joyce’s hospitality.

Jeff was a strong supporter of intensely philosophical theatre and he deemed it an extra benefit that Don Teeters wrote philosophical plays that contained a healthy helping of humor for good measure. Jeff made a point of attending every production of Don’s six plays and could easily talk for hours about the philosophical issues raised in each. Our last experience of Jeff was having him join the audience for the closing night of The Prime Solution as part of the 2020 Fertile Ground Play Festival – just before the Covid 19 Pandemic became a reality.

Zuleika Pevec

My family moved to Southwest Portland just as I was starting 7th grade. We had spent the previous year living in Portugal (at Subud Portugal’s beautiful Albergaria in Bucelas), and I had grown up going to a very alternative elementary school in Vancouver, BC. So starting middle school in Portland, at a normal public school, was pretty intimidating for me. One of the first friends I made at my new school was Dawn, who got on the school bus at the same stop as me. While I don’t remember the details of how it all went down, what I know is that I ended up spending a lot of time at her foster home and meeting Jeff and Joyce. They lived just down the street from us, and over time, or with intention (I can’t remember!), they became close family friends.

I loved going over to their house because they had video games and awesome snacks like big muffins from Costco, Red Vines and ice cream sandwiches. They also had a basketball court and a hot tub in their backyard. Their house was full of spectacular art, and while the kids didn’t spend a lot of time upstairs, their collection made an impression on me. In their living room they had photos of many of their foster children, and I remember Jeff telling me about them and how much he loved them all. Both Jeff and Joyce always made us neighborhood kids feel perfectly at home and welcome. Even as Dawn was reunited with her father, we were fast friends with Jeff and Joyce. I can’t remember if I thought it odd or perfectly normal that they joined Subud and became even more entwined in our community. The one and only Passover seder I’ve been to was at their house.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Jeff, maybe 2006 at the National Gathering? But even then, I remember a sweet connection, talking about the crazy turns life takes. I will remember him with such fondness. He made a big impression on me as a young person.

Zuleika Pevec, BSc

If you have any stories or remembrances of Jeff Polk, please feel free to share them in the Comments Section below.