Paul Sefcovic had a “natural ability to teach,” said Ron Darby of Colorado State University-Pueblo, where they both trained students for management jobs in the auto industry.
After suffering kidney problems, having a kidney transplant and then contracting West Nile virus, Sefcovic died of shingles Aug. 13 in Denver. He was 52.
“His immune system was really compromised,” said his wife, Jane Sefcovic, adding that the shingles virus had gone to his brain. Paul Sefcovic had a kidney transplant in 2006 but had to take anti-rejection medicines that compromised his immune system.
Sefcovic was a popular teacher, said Darby, who has received about 100 e-mails from former students praising Sefcovic.
One former student wrote, “He was one of the most demanding educators I ever knew, but it was well worth it,” Darby said.
The two men were in an unusual department — automobile industry management, which trains students to take management jobs in car companies, trucking companies and firms that make tires and parts for vehicles.
Students also get some “hands-on” experience of repairing vehicles, “so they will make good judgments about hiring when they get jobs,” Darby said.
“But we don’t concentrate on the technical skills.”
The CSU-Pueblo department is one of “a dozen at most” such schools in the country, Darby said. About 10 to 13 students graduate from the four-year program each year at CSU-Pueblo, said Hector Carrasco, dean of the college of education there.
“Paul was a tough instructor, but his expectations were clear,” Carrasco said.
Sefcovic could repair most cars, his favorite being the Ford Mustang. “I don’t think he had a car that wasn’t a Ford,” Darby said.
He also loved riding a dirt bike and raising alfalfa on his farm outside Pueblo.
Sefcovic was born in Pueblo on Dec. 14, 1955, and grew up in Vineland, just east of Pueblo. He graduated from Pueblo County High School.
He married Jane Fajt, whom he had met in high school, on June 19, 1976.
He earned a degree in automobile management at CSU-Pueblo (then the University of Southern Colorado) and a master’s degree in industrial education there.
He taught at Pueblo Community College for eight years before going to CSU-Pueblo.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Emily and Christopher, both 9, and Robert, 3; three brothers, Michael, of Denver, and Tony and Gary, both of Pueblo; his mother, Dorothy Sefcovic, of Pueblo, and a sister, Rosemary Niichel, of Fort Collins.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
