30-year Santa Clara professor dies at age 62

By Gina Belmonte

Marketing professor Tyzoon Tyebjee, who loved the outdoors and taught at Santa Clara for more than 30 years, died Wednesday, April 9, from pulmonary cystic fibrosis. He was 62.

Tyebjee was diagnosed with the disease in 2002, but he continued teaching until one week before he died.

For his spring quarter graduate business course, he arranged for a series of guest speakers to cover specific topics, while he would add to the lectures when he was feeling up to it.

"He definitely wanted to teach as long as possible," said his wife, Joyce.

On Thursday, April 3, during the first week of spring quarter classes, Tyebjee arrived to teach his marketing course supported with a wheelchair and an oxygen tank with his wife Joyce by his side, recalled fellow marketing professor Shelby McIntyre, who explained the situation to the class.

"He could not really sit up straight and rested his head on a chair in front of him," McIntyre said. "He piped in on a lapel mic with various comments -- and with great difficulty of speech. About halfway through the class he pronounced, 'It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining, class is over and I want you all to go outside and enjoy the sunshine.' Those were his last words as a professor."

Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Kevin Holmes, a student in Tyebjee's last class, recalled how Tyebjee had difficulty lifting his head up but said he wasn't ready to "fold his hand" for this course before he reached the culmination of the career he wanted.

"Statistically, he was living on borrowed time, but it was clear that the course was what kept him going, and that reflects not only professionally, but on the kind of person he was," said Holmes.

His colleagues and students describe him as warm, sincere, genuine and well-liked, but also wise, articulate and decisive.

"He was the guy that would make stuff happen," said McIntyre, who estimates Tyebjee taught more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students during his 30 years at Santa Clara.

Born Nov. 2, 1945, in Bombay, India, Tyebjee earned his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 1967. He came to the U.S. to complete a master's degree in chemical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA and Ph.D. in marketing from the University of California, Berkeley.

Tyebjee, author of more than 40 articles in leading marketing journals, came to Santa Clara in 1977 and eventually gained tenure.

From 1981 to 1985 and again in 2005, Tyebjee served as the international business director, which involved working with students to find internships, plan schedules and pursue study abroad options.

"He had a really inquisitive mind, always challenging and bringing out the best in people," said Dale Achabal, a fellow marketing professor who knew Tyebjee for 27 years.

In 1998, Tyebjee started the Accelerated Cooperative Education Program, also known as the ACE program, which provides incoming freshmen the opportunity to receive scholarships and internships throughout their four years from big companies like Applied Materials and Logitech.

"His personality just radiated," said Leslie Kincaid, a member of the ACE program who worked with Tyebjee in the undergraduate business office. "He was a very, very selfless person."

Stephanie Chun, also in the ACE program, said Tyebjee was always trying to help students realize their goals.

"We were looking for internships for the summer, and he would always check in on me," Chun said. "He was always really concerned for every student."

Tyebjee was also a key player in developing an international business studies minor, said John Toppel, management professor.

"He was really excited bout getting students to focus on global business and activity and look outside their own world," Toppel said.

Tyebjee's colleagues describe him as well connected to the world outside his own -- his wife estimates he has traveled to 50 to 60 countries -- and a great outdoorsman, loving every activity from hiking to camping to horseback riding.

Always enjoying an adventure, Tyebjee was also a river-rafting aficionado and made at least 15 major trips, said McIntyre.

He persistently encouraged his colleagues to apply for river-rafting permits issued by a lottery system, she said.

One time, after six years in the lottery, Tyebjee, his son and daughter, McIntyre, and another colleague won permits and rafted along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho.

One of his favorite places was a cabin near the Salmon River, with no electricity and no water, where he had to wear boots to keep from stepping on rattlesnakes and the closest grocery store was two hours away, Joyce said.

"He had this child-of-the-'60s wild spirit," said Toppel. "He wasn't a hippie or anything, but he went to Berkeley at an exciting time when there was a lot of energy and freedom, and you could see that in him."

A private memorial gathering was held last Saturday.

In addition to his wife Joyce, Tyebjee is survived by two children, his daughter Zia, a graduate of Yale, and his son Saleh, who attends the University of California, Davis. His brother Tamim lives in Bombay, and his sister Taima lives in Toronto.

Cards can be sent to the Tyebjee Family, 201 Capricorn Ave., Oakland, CA, 94611.

Mary Georgevich contributed to this report. Contact Gina Belmonte at (408) 554-4546 or gbelmonte@scu.edu.