Daniel Jiru was more than just a religion teacher at St. Paul High School, but was a symbolic icon to the many youths who walked the hallways of St. Paul from the early 1970s to the late 2000s.
Jiru spearheaded the school's March for Hunger, where he encouraged students to take a stance against the existing social injustice in the United States.
The activist suffered from a malignant brain tumor for two years before he died on Dec. 22. He was 73.
Jiru was born in Janesville, WI., in 1938 and had one brother, Richard. He belonged to the Salesians of Don Bosco and worked at St. Paul High School from 1972 until he retired in 2007.
Jiru founded the March for Hunger in 1972 where, according to the group's Facebook page, his mission was to, "Serve the poor of the Los Angeles area buy fund raising for the Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen in downtown. They serve 1800 meals a day."
"I think for me the most precious thing about Dan was that he always had the ideological sense of justice and compassion. What he gained from being at the kitchen was to have the time to be present to the lives of the poor and homeless," said close friend, Jeff Dietrich.
Jiru often spent his time sweeping the soup kitchen's garden and spoke with the the kitchen's visitors and got to know them.
According to Dietrich, over a period of close to 40 years, the youths at St. Paul raised about a million dollars for the soup kitchen.
"They are our biggest donors, contributors and supporters. Dan was not only someone who wanted to raise money for a good cause or charity, but he wanted to teach his kids about social justice and the disparity of wealth in our social system," said Dietrich.
Jiru designed the 26-mile walk to have participants walk from the poorest neighborhoods in East Los Angeles through Downtown Los Angeles and into Beverly Hills.
"He did this so those participating could gain a sense of how unjust our social system is and that we weren't just raising money for the homeless," said Dietrich.
Youths that Jiru taught would often visit the soup kitchen.
"We have parents who did this walk years ago as students at St. Paul and to this day they're still involved," said Dietrich.
"This was Dan's gift and his legacy continues with thousands of kids who are now adults and have a whole different world view and may not have had that had Dan not been there to teach them about compassion," he said.
Jiru lived in Whittier before moving to Long Beach eight years ago.
One of his greatest passions included running marathons in which participated in about 16 of them during his life.
"He participated in the Los Angeles Marathon 11 times until 2006 when we both ran it together," said Dietrich.
"He was the most profound human being in my life," said his son, Eric Jiru.
"This man lived such a wonderful and inspirational life that I feel others need to know and understand what this man brought to the world," said Jiru.
Jiru is survived by his wife, Irene, son, and granddaughter, Charlotte.
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