Saeko Usukawa
“The Great One”
Saeko Usukawa passed away on July 5, 2009, at the age of 63. She is survived by her partner of thirty years, Peggy Thompson, her sister Donna Crawford (Clyde) and nieces Wendi and Dawn (husband Ed, children James, Tyler and Shardae), and Peggy’s family the Dickies, Browns, Thompsons, and Hay-Moores.
Saeko was born in 1946, in the Lemon Creek Internment Camp in B.C., and after the war the Usukawas moved to Toronto. When her mother died at an early age, Saeko and Donna were raised by a loving extended family.
After a brief stint at university, Saeko started out at Macmillan Publishers, where she quickly became their youngest editor. Also in Toronto she made her lifelong friends Anne McDermid, Alvyn Austin, Ramsay Derry and Robert Bathgate. As a young woman she was drawn to alternative culture; she joined the protests against Apartheid and the Vietnam War, and became engaged in the Women’s Movement.
In the 1970s she came out, and moved to Vancouver. She joined the Pacific Women’s Graphic Arts Co-operative, an all-woman publishing and design collective. There she met her great Vancouver friends Jo Cook, Sarah Davidson, Nora Randall, Mary Schendlinger, Jocelan Tracey, SKY Lee and others. This group went on to publish the groundbreaking Makara magazine.
Saeko served as editorial director of Douglas & McIntyre before taking early retirement in 2006, after almost thirty years with the company. She was a wonderful mentor to younger writers and editors, was respected by all who worked with her and loved by all who knew her. D&M say they will miss her quiet intelligence, incisive judgement and unfailing grace and good humour. She had the great pleasure of working with such authors as Wayson Choy, Douglas Coupland, Wade Davis, James Delgado, Vickie Jensen, SKY Lee, Keith McLaren, Charles Montgomery, Jane O’Hara, Bill Richardson, Andreas Schroeder, Hilary Stewart and many others. Saeko enjoyed working with chefs on cookbooks, among them John Bishop, whom she adored, as well as Rob Feenie and the Chefs' Table Society of British Columbia.
D&M’s Emily Carr collection came about as a result of Saeko's interest in Carr’s writing and her commitment to seeing it restored to its original (unexpurgated) form. She enjoyed the art books she edited with Ian Thom such as Robert Davidson: Eagle of the Dawn, and with Terri Reksten, which led to the groundbreaking Illustrated History of British Columbia. She was passionate about the art, history and First Nations of B.C. It was at D&M that Saeko began working with the author/designer Barbara Hodgson, and they began their decades-long conversation about books. She’ll be missed at D&M and Greystone Books by Scott and Corky McIntyre, Nancy Flight, Chris LaBonte, Lucy Kenward, Barbara Pulling, Rob Sanders, Kym Lyons and the rest of the team.
In the early 1980s, Saeko and Peggy moved into the Manhattan Housing Co-op, where they made new friends, including Dennis Mills and Michelle Normoyle. Peter, Kate and Joe Weiss were frequent visitors, as were Sharon McGowan and John Boe, Dave Schroeder, Rosamond Norbury, and Jane O’Hara and Helen Ryane. It was at the Manhattan that Saeko’s nickname “The Great One” was bestowed, as all found her wise beyond her years.
Saeko and Peggy created two books in the mid-1990s. Drawing on their love of old films, they wrote Hardboiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films and Tall in the Saddle: Great Lines from Classic Westerns. Both were first published by Brian Lam at Arsenal Pulp Press and then by Chronicle Books in the U.S. Saeko also compiled The Little Lavender Book of the Love that Once Dared Not Speak Its Name for Arsenal Pulp Press.
Saeko was the recipient of the 2007 Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for her work on Abstract Painting in Canada by Roald Nasgaard, and she served as a judge for the award several times, including this year.
The family would like to thank Saeko’s care teams: Dr. B. Jean Clarke, Gerard Tan at Inspire Health, the doctors and nurses at the B.C. Cancer Agency, the home care nursing team, the acute care teams and the doctors and nurses at Palliative Care at Vancouver General Hospital. Your compassion, generosity and commitment were a great comfort to us.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Saeko’s name to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, 550 - 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4A2, an organization she supported.
A party in her memory will be held on October 18, 2009, at the Vancouver Rowing Club at 2 p.m.