Jeff was born on May 14, 1934 in the heart of Manhattan, Greenwich Village. His parents, Hildegard Anna Clara Jaeger (born Wuppertal, Germany) and Raymond Maurice Safford, soon moved to what was then the wilds of Staten Island, to a community on the south shore. The Staten Island woods and the Atlantic offered Jeff and his two siblings, Carol and Tom, a natural, exploratory playground. Jeff’s deep love of American history can be traced back to his parent’s volunteerism in preserving 17th century buildings in Historic Richmond Town. His father, at one time, served as president of the Staten Island Historical Society. Jeff attended Public School 8 and Tottenville High in the New York City public school system. He went on to attend Wagner College in Staten Island on a baseball scholarship. He majored both in history and music, with piano as his main instrument. This duality of humanities and sports would become a hallmark of Jeff’s life. In 1955, when Jeff was a senior and a bass in the Wagner College choir, he took notice of a freshman alto named June Billings; he was determined to gain a bus seat next to June on their 24-day Wagner Choir tour up and down the East Coast. Fortunately, June consented and the rest is history.
Jeff and June were married on Staten Island, in Trinity Lutheran Church on December 22nd, 1957. Having been drafted into the army, Jeff was deployed abroad and June soon joined him in Baumholder, Germany, where they both acquired a lifelong fondness for traveling and living in Europe, making a total of 17 trips. One of Jeff’s great loves was bird watching, an interest which he attributed to his mother. He saw and recorded 654 North American species in his life-time. Jeff and June’s final bird trip was to Hawaii in January 2019 where Jeff documented his final entry: the Hawaiian Apapane. Jeff loved to fly fish. His memories of summer fishing on the Penobscot in northern Maine would be augmented by years of fly fishing on the Gallatin Valley’s blue ribbon streams. To attest to Jeff’s love affair with rivers and fishing, one can see a 5lb 13oz rainbow trout he caught on the Beckler River, August 29th, 1973 on display at Don Bailey’s Wall of Fame in Livingston.
Jeff and June moved to Bozeman in the summer of 1968 with their two oldest children, Hugh and Meredith. With a fresh PhD in American History from Rutgers University, Jeff came excited to teach in the History and Philosophy Department at Montana State University. The day they all arrived in Bozeman, the outdoor thermometer on the First Security Bank registered a blistering 89 degrees. The next day it snowed! It was a real ‘welcome to Montana’ moment. In 1970 Jeff and June purchased a small ranch at the base of Hyalite Canyon for $1 down plus mortgage by a grad student of Jeff’s. The price was right and it sounded like a challenge; Jeff never shirked a challenge. Jeff and June became farmers in addition to Jeff’s full time MSU position and June’s English teaching job at Bozeman Senior High. With the birth of Alex and Brooke in the interim, the farm became a whole family affair. In 1981, they moved to their current house in Bozeman. While at MSU, Jeff published twenty-five professional articles, and read historical papers at numerous conferences. Jeff published Wilsonian Maritime Diplomacy 1913-1921, in 1978, based on his PhD Thesis. For ten summers Jeff taught graduate students at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. At that time his oceanic history interests still strong, he, with other Mystic faculty, produced America and the Sea, in 1998 the most comprehensive maritime history of the United States. But Jeff had to come to grips with the fact Montana was not on any sea coast. He found gold when he realized a new and local historical focus, mining in the 19th century. Out of that discovery came The Mechanics of Optimism, The Hot Spring Gold Rush, 1864-1868. Along with historians Robert Rydell and Pierce Mullen, he also co-authored In The People’s Interest, a Centennial History of Montana State University in 1993.
Jeff was an avid sports fan and a regular at Bobcat football and basketball games. He was a longtime member of Valley View Golf Club and in the 70’s, jump-started the famous Karl Mark’s Cardinals over-30 slow-pitch softball team. Jeff says that the human relationship between members was one of the warmest a man could ask for. Jeff was also an aficionado of music and it came to the fore in many ways. He and June sang together for twenty-five years in the Bozeman Symphonic Choir. They also combined their love for travel and singing by participating in Berkshire Choral Festivals in New Mexico, Massachusetts and Austria. In 1985 Jeff brought together members of the community and the MSU Music Department to organize a three day symposium and concert series, “Bach in Bozeman.” The success of this event led Jeff to organize three subsequent symposiums: Mozart in 1991, Brahms in 1997, and Mendelssohn in 2009. As a member of Hope Lutheran Church, Jeff helped organize an organ recital at the church to introduce the community to its newly installed, marvelous 36 rank pipe organ. Jeff loved classical music, and especially the choral music of Mendelssohn and Bach. It was fitting therefore, that the music of Bach was playing in the background as Jeff passed from this life journey to the next.
Jeff leaves behind his devoted wife June; sister Carol; brother Tom (Jean); children Hugh (Kelly) Safford, Meredith Safford, Alexander (Kristen) Safford, and Brooke (Chad) Safford; and six grandchildren: Marcel Safford, Daniel Safford, Alina Martin, Michelle Martin, Annika Safford and David Safford. A memorial service for Jeff will be held for immediate family with plans to schedule a more public memorial in the summer. Memorial donations can be made in Jeff’s name to one of the following organizations: Bozeman Public Library, Hope Lutheran Organ/Music Fund, Sacajawea Audubon Society or the Gallatin Valley Land Trust.
Published in Bozeman Daily Chronicle on Jan. 10, 2021.
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