Spanish linguistics Professor Denise Minor will be remembered for many things – for her creative approach to teaching, devotion to her family, fierce loyalty to those she loved.
She has already been remembered for her joyful laugh, her love of language and her appreciation for its evolution, all of which shaped the students she taught and the Chico State Spanish Program that hired her in 2007.
A memorial fund in her memory has been opened here to aid first and second-generation Latinx students.
Perhaps it was her love of life that explained her courageous, unrelenting battle with cancer and her sadness at leaving those she loved at the age of 62. In gatherings since her July 1 passing, her laugh has been described as “mischievous,” “contagious” and “delighted.”read more
Denise Minor had a dream that wouldn’t go away, a dream to teach Spanish at a university. And while it ultimately became a dream achieved at Chico State, it was first a dream deferred by the extreme challenges of mothering an autistic son.
Minor’s new book includes essays published in different forms and at different times during son Max’s life. She believes she benefited from her work on “No Screaming Jelly Beans” — even beyond the therapeutic value that can come from writing narratives — after the notion of a book took hold in her mind.read more
