Remembering Jeff Maiken
Jeffrey Monroe Maiken, dearly loved father, brother, and son, passed away peacefully on December 21, 2019, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, from complications of dementia and organ failure. He is survived by his first wife, Anne Ward Burton; younger brother, Tony Trueblood; sister, Penelope Maiken Kircher; daughter, Michele Maiken Kfouri; son, Marcos Andrew Maiken; and two grandsons, Jonathan Kfouri and André Kfouri.
Jeff was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1943 and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, by his parents Jack Andrew and Grace Adele Trueblood Maiken. He grew up with his eldest brother, Peter Maiken (d. 2006) , younger brother Tony, and younger sister, Penelope.
Jeff graduated with a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1964 after spending two years at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and a junior year abroad in Madrid, Spain. In January of 1965, Jeff married his first wife, Anne, the mother of his two children.
He fought in Vietnam as a second lieutenant from 1967-69, where he was a trained airborne intelligence officer. During the 1968 TET Offensive, Jeff received two Bronze Star Medals.
After the war, Jeff returned to the University of Wisconsin where he earned an MBA in 1970. Following his graduation, the family traveled to Brazil where Jeff was an executive for Coca-Cola and Heublein.
Anne and Jeff adopted a young Brazilian boy, Marcos, and returned to the United States in 1976. Jeff continued his successful work in the liquor business in Hartford and later in Louisville, Kentucky. He later moved to the Central Coast of California where he began working in the wine business, culminating with being general manager of award-winning Zaca Mesa Winery. In California, he married his second wife, Jayn Merrill, in 1992. In 2002, they retired to Austin, Texas, and thoroughly enjoyed LAMP courses and their cats, Smoke and Mirror. Jayn predeceased Jeff in 2012. In 2018 Jeff moved to be near his brother, Tony, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to an assisted living apartment overlooking the beautiful Organ Mountains, which he loved.
Jeff’s true home, as he referred to it, remained on Washington Island where he spent his summers as an avid fisherman, sailor, tennis player, golfer, community theater actor, and trumpet player. He frequently entertained his family and many friends from around the world there with grilled dinners, good wine, bonfires, and cigars.
Jeff was deeply loved and will be missed.
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