Jaime Escalante

Birth Name:

Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez

Birth Date:

December 31, 1930

Birth Place:

La Paz, Bolivia

Death Date:

March 30, 2010

Place of Death:

Roseville, California

Age:

Cause of Death:

Bladder cancer

Cemetery Name:

Rose Hills Memorial Park

Claim to Fame:

Science

Jaime Escalante became famous for his work with troubled, "unteachable" high school math students. Escalante was an educator who was born in Bolivia and came to the United States in the 1960s to seek a better life. He began teaching math to troubled students in a violent Los Angeles school and became famous for leading many of them to pass the advanced placement calculus test. In 1991, the number of Garfield students taking advanced placement examinations in math and other subjects jumped to 570 with many of them going on to selective universities including the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) He was played by Edward James Olmos in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver.

Fun Fact

Due to academic infighting and petty jealousy, Escalante left Garfield High School at the height of his success and Angelo Villavicencio took over the program after Escalante’s departure, teaching the remaining 107 AP students in two classes over the following year. Sixty-seven of Villavicencio’s students went on to take the AP exam and forty-seven passed. The math program’s decline at Garfield became apparent following the departure of Escalante and other teachers associated with its inception and development. In just a few years, the number of AP calculus students at Garfield who passed their exams dropped by more than 80%. In 1996, Villavicencio contacted Garfield’s new principal, Tony Garcia, and offered to come back to help revive the dying calculus program. His offer was rejected.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Rose Hills Memorial Park

3888 Workman Mill Road

Whittier, California, 90601

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California

Grave Location:

Lakeside Gardens, Section 18, Lot 3914, Grave 3

Grave Location Description

Make your way to the Rose Hills Cemetery Flower Shop just inside Gate 1 near the intersection of Workman Mill Road and Rose Hills Road. As you enter the cemetery turn left and curve around and turn right at the first chance and drive 200 feet and stop. Walk towards the lake to your right and the former educator can be found about 50 feet from the lake shore.