Liberia RPCV Irwin J. 'Jerry' Ainsfield dies in Washington DC
Irwin J. 'Jerry' Ainsfield Teacher
Irwin Jerome "Jerry" Ainsfield, 60, a Washington area teacher since the late 1960s, died Sept. 6 at Inova Fairfax Hospital of complications from a liver transplant that day.
Mr. Ainsfield, a Takoma Park resident, taught history at McKinley Technical High School in Washington from the late 1960s to mid-1980s.
He then spent a decade teaching at the U.S. Senate Page School before doing substitute teaching work in Montgomery County schools, such as Springbrook High School and the Phoenix School for children with drug and alcohol problems.
He stopped teaching about the time he received his first liver transplant in 2000.
He was born in Washington and raised in Alexandria, where he was a graduate of George Washington High School. He was a 1965 graduate of what is now East Carolina University. In 1970, as a member of the Urban Teachers Corps, he received a master's degree in teaching from a program at Ohio's Antioch College that allowed him to take classes in Washington.
He spent the late 1960s stationed in Liberia with the Peace Corps.
Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Sandy Pooley Ainsfield of Takoma Park; three daughters, Amanda Ainsfield, Shana Ainsfield and Laura Ainsfield, all of Takoma Park; a son, Jason Ainsfield of Washington; a brother, Neale Ainsfield of Vienna; and two granddaughters.
