Obituary: Maria Jungowska

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Book editor. Died aged 54.

Maria Jungowska was born on April 28, 1949, in Stockport, England, to Polish parents. At the Auckland double funeral for Maria Jungowska and historian husband Dr Michael King, the congregation was told that her parents saw the worst of World War II.

Her mother, Wladyslawa, known as June, spent two and a half years in one of Stalin's labour camps and was a nurse in the Middle East. Her late father, Tadeusz Czeslaw, was a Polish Army cadet who eventually fled to Yugoslavia and then Scotland.

"It was no surprise," said Maria Kazmierow Beresford, who spoke for June Jungowska at the funeral last Tuesday, "that Maria chose a historian [as her husband]."

The family emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Orakei. Maria Jungowska, an only child who spoke Polish at home, was educated in Auckland at Monte Cecilia and at Baradene. A friend since those school days, Margaret Harris, remembered a perfectionist who was good at art and playing piano, and studious: "I remember her swotting Latin by moonlight after lights out".

Maria Jungowska graduated from Auckland University with a BA and MA in languages and literature. She later trained as a teacher at the Auckland College of Education.

King's daughter Rachael recounted how Maria Jungowska met King. Maria Jungowska took a writing course he was teaching; she noticed that he appeared to be eyeing up the woman sitting behind her. It was a little later she found out that he actually had "a bung eye" and that she was the object of his attention.

The children's first meeting with Maria, when Rachael was about 11, was prefaced by King with a comment bound to break the ice in advance: "There's a Polish princess coming for dinner".

Maria Jungowska taught in Palmerston North but began working in publishing, principally with Lansdowne Press. In 1984, she joined Hodder & Stoughton as an editor. She became an integral part of a talented trio with Bert Hingley and Tom Beran during a halcyon period of local publishing in the late 1980s.

In 1993 she and King decided that Opoutere, on the Coromandel, would be their permanent home.

Maria Jungowska established her own publishing consultancy, Scope Publishing Services. She specialised in New Zealand history, biographies and children's fiction and nonfiction.

More recently, multiple sclerosis had begun to affect her movement, in particular her ability to drive.

On their frequent trips to Auckland, King would tuck her in the back seat and take the wheel.

The couple were on their way to Auckland when their car ran off State Highway 2 at Maramarua, and hit a tree, killing them both.

According to a tribute written on behalf of the Book Publishers Association, Maria Jungowska was "kind, considerate, sensitive to the feelings of others, indeed, one of the most compassionate and caring people imaginable".

"She was also highly intelligent and had a delightful sense of humour. She was a gentle person, but she had very high moral standards and could be tough-minded when occasion demanded.

"Most importantly, authors and friends always respected her opinion and were ultimately grateful for her unique perception and meticulousness."