Maureen, We’ll Miss You

The Publisher and Staff of The Westchester Guardian were profoundly saddened by the sudden, and untimely passing of our Northern Bureau Chief, Maureen Keating Tsuchiya, on Saturday, October 28th, the result of complications following surgery a few days earlier.

Maureen was a wonderful person, in so many ways larger than life. She seemed to have an infinite capacity for giving of herself, and there wasn’t anything you might ask of her that she wouldn’t do, and do well. And, while she was an amazingly energetic advocate for causes and candidates others might only have paid lip service to, she was, at the same moment, a loving and devoted wife to Takashi, and mother to Hannah. Whenever she couldn’t be reached at home, it was certain that she was bringing Hannah to dance lessons, to school, or to some other event.

Despite her already full agenda, as a wife and mother, and community activist, I called upon Maureen several
months before the opening of this newspaper, because I could think of nobody I wanted more to report the signifi-cant happenings in Northern Westchester on a weekly basis.

She never rejected, nor failed to complete, an assignment. She had the remarkable ability to quickly, but objectively, analyze situations, grasping the implications and identifying the wheat from the chaff. Maureen had a loving, giving, heart. However, she had no qualms about letting you know exactly what she thought. She had little tolerance for hypocrisy, and none for injustice, and she worked endlessly against each. She had a wonderful network of media and organizational contacts, and she could marshal scores of correspondents to a cause in minutes. To me Maureen embodied the spirit of the Sixties, a willingness to “fight City Hall.” Social advocacy defined her.

She was a one-of-a-kind spirit, taken from our midst, and our lives, far too soon. And yet, having had an enormous impact on all who knew her, and many who would not. Asking no exemption, or favor, she took on one challenge after another. I will always remember that wonderful, spontaneous, burst of laughter that invariably
greeted news that some ‘Dragon of Injustice,’ or other, had been foiled.

We will all miss Maureen, each for our own special reasons, each in our own way. I will miss her friendship and her spirit, her selfless willingness to stand up for us all.

Richard Blassberg,
Editor in Chief