Junius (J.B.) Close; Teacher

Junius (J. B.) Close, who taught English literature in Ojai schools for 35 years, died Wednesday after a brief bout with cancer.

He was 66.

Close, a scholar of Dante and Milton, was described by family members and colleagues as an avid reader and dedicated teacher who opened the world of literature to his students.

Born in Westfield, N. J., Close earned his bachelor’s degree in French literature from Yale University in 1946, when he was 20.

That same year, he moved across the country to Ojai to teach English literature at the Thacher School, a 225-student preparatory school.

He was so enthusiastic about his new home that his younger sister eventually joined him here, said the sister, Denise Miller, 61, who met and married a teacher at Thacher School and was herself the school librarian for 17 years.

Miller, who lives in Ojai, said her brother “would never return East because he said he had found the most perfect place in which to live.”

Close, who went by the nickname J. B. because he hated the nam Junius, taught at Thacher for two years before taking nine years off to write a book, which was not published. He returned to teaching in 1957, for eight years at the private Ojai Valley School and then for 25 years at Thacher.

Bonnie Robinson, an English teacher at Thacher, said Close was “a genuine scholar,” which is unusual for high school teachers in this country.

“He was like something that is more common in England than here,” she said. “Here, scholars usually teach at the college level.”

“The students who were serious students adored him. He was one of those teachers who changed some students’ lives because he opened up a whole new area to them,” she said.

“It was an incredible experience to be his colleague. He was an incredible resource,” Robinson said. “I hate to think about him not being here.”

Close retired in 1990 to do graduate studies in English at Stanford University. Besides reading, he loved horseback riding, camping and gardening.

In addition to Miller, he is survived by a brother in Fairfield, Conn., four nieces and two nephews. The family plans to arrange a memorial service at Thacher School at a later date.