The Johnathan Irving Kelly Memorial Fund

Honoring the Life of Johnathan Irving Kelly

My partner Johnathan Irving Kelly passed away on June 6, 2022 at the age of 38. Earlier this year I discovered a letter that Johnathan wrote to his father, who passed away when Johnathan was a young kid, on what would have been his 80th birthday. In the letter Johnathan reflected on what the birthday would have felt like and what his father would have said to him.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter:

I don’t really know how to honor my father on his birthday. I feel him speaking to me at times, sometimes speaking a word of encouragement, a “good job son” or a “keep on truckin.” But more often I hear his voice speaking to my conscience, telling me that I need to take action and do more for people who I inhabit this world and this country with. That voice can be hard to hear and easy to dismiss as not really him, but I can’t deny that I feel like it’s what I need to hear and can only hear from him.

So today, and every day, I hope to hear your voice, dad, even when it’s painful. I love you.

My heart is utterly broken. While there’s nothing that I can ever do to make what happened to him in the least bit right, I hope with this fund to honor the urgency Johnathan felt in everything he did: “to take action and do more for people who I inhabit this world and this country with.” The way Johnathan carried his grief inspires and motivates me in how I carry the profound loss that I face every day without him. I will always love and deeply miss him.

You can read more about Johnathan’s life and work in his obituary here.

Donations in memory of Johnathan may be made to The Johnathan Irving Kelly Memorial Fund, a charitable fund I established at the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles to support scholarships to students pursuing advanced scholarship in Jewish studies in Boston, scholarships to offset rent for undergraduate and graduate students in Berkeley, cancer prevention research, and other causes meaningful to me and Johnathan’s family.

In 2023 The Johnathan Irving Kelly Memorial Fund is making grants to the following organizations:

1. The Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University, for scholarships supporting research and professional development for students pursuing advanced
scholarship in Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies.
2. The Berkeley Student Cooperative, for scholarships to offset rent for undergraduate and graduate students. The BSC provides affordable housing and board to students.
3. The Bruns House, a residential inpatient hospice care run by Hospice East Bay.
4. Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit that uses the power of public information to protect public health and our environment.

I deeply appreciate your support. We dearly miss Johnathan and believe that by repairing and improving the world we can sustain his memory.

With love,
Rebecca Coleman & family