Vincent John Jeffries

March 15, 1936 March 3, 2023

Vincent John Jeffries was born in Ashford, England on March 15th, 1936. He came to the United States with his parents in September of 1939 on the SS Manhattan. Vince grew up in Southern California where his father was the manager of the Hollywood Hotel. As a young man he loved nature and would go bow hunting in the hills around the San Fernando Valley. Socially conscious from a young age, he studied sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and, as a graduate student, did research into racial attitudes during the Watts riots of 1965. Although private and reserved by nature, he taught boxing to help disadvantaged teenage boys to get off the streets. After earning his PhD in Sociology, he became a faculty member at California State, Northridge, where he taught for 41 years and later became a Professor Emeritus. He was a highly accomplished scholar who was instrumental in founding the section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity in the American Sociological Association. He was a devout Catholic and for many years attended Mass daily at St. Jane Frances de Chantal in North Hollywood. It was there that he met and married his beloved wife Cecelia. Having a lifelong love of animals, Vince kept a menagerie that included dogs, cats, chickens, turtles, ducks, and more, with a special love of roosters. Vince remained active as a scholar until the end of his life and continued to care for animals in his home of 70 years. He was proud to claim the San Fernando Valley as his home, calling it the “center of the universe”. He was a caring and devoted husband who believed deeply in the power of love, both in everyday life and for the good of society. Vince passed on March 3rd, 2023, and is survived by his wife Cecelia, nephew Crispin Jeffries and family, and his niece Xanthe Jeffries.