Educator, adventurous traveler, extraordinary gardener, food innovator, caring friend

Longtime Claremont resident Amy Bogen died April 25 after a short illness. Her daughter, Aubrey Bogen, and her grandson, Zoe Bogen, were by her side.

Amy was born on July 24, l935 and lived many places while growing up, including San Francisco, Florida, New York and Beverly Hills. 

She graduated from Claremont’s Scripps College and then earned a master of fine arts degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. 

After a few years of teaching and marriage to Jim Bogen, she returned to Claremont when her husband began teaching at Pitzer College. 

During this time Ms. Bogen studied at Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University) for a second master’s degree. She also taught nursery school at the Mary B. Eyre Children’s School in Claremont before moving on to Linda Vista School in the Ontario-Montclair School District. She was an innovative teacher, initiating many new ideas for bilingual experiences and introducing the garden as part of the classroom experience. 

She was an excellent grant writer, which helped her to become so successful in bringing new ideas for early childhood education. Her longtime friend Janet Macauley remembered working with her on a nine-year education program to encourage the acceptance of bilingual Spanish/English education for students in kindergarten through third grade. 

Ms. Bogen lived on a ranch in La Verne for many years. There she raised horses, goats and dogs and kept a full, rich garden for home use. As a single parent she worked hard to balance home and working life.

After moving down to Claremont, she created another large garden, complete with chickens, geese and dogs, which gave her much pleasure and her friends, eggs.

She was considered an excellent cook and took much pleasure in producing creative and interesting meals. She was a food adventurist, always looking out for a new restaurant and willing to try new and tasteful dishes. Her friend Jan Wheatcroft recalled how Thursday was their night to eat out and how much fun they had finding somewhere and something new to try. Later their friends Ronald and Janet Macauley joined them on their Thursday evening food adventures. 

She will be greatly missed by her many friends and fellow educators from her Linda Vista teaching days, as well as her dog park walking pals, her book club group, and all those who knew her well and admired her warmth, cleverness, wisdom and generosity.