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February 22, 2017
Services
Memorial visiting will be held at the Vander May Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne, on Sunday, February 26, 2017 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m., during the visiting hours.
84 of Wayne, died peacefully at home on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
When Joan Tucker first saw the light of understanding suddenly appear in the eyes of a student, she knew that teaching was her vocation and spent the next 50 years as a teacher, vice-principal, principal or professor. Even after she retired as principal of Mt. Olive High School in 1999, Joan continued to work as an adjunct professor at Caldwell College and with the Geraldine Dodge Foundation to improve teaching methods and curriculum. Believing that life-long learning and improvement were necessary to be a good educator and person, there was hardly a year in which she would not be studying for a degree or taking a class. After graduating from Montclair University, Cum Laude, in 1954, she went on to study at New York University. She received a Masters of Arts in Education from Montclair then a Masters of Letters from Drew University. At the age of 70, she received a Doctor of Letters from Drew University.
Dr. Joan, as her sons would later call her, started her career in 1954 in what is now Wayne Valley High School. It is here that she would meet Charles Tucker. They shared a love of the art and craft of teaching, the theater, travel, great quotations, and reading. How they loved reading! (They are the only people we have ever seen wear out a Kindle). She would be his “flower” and he would be her “dearest one” for the rest of their lives. Tuck would support his flower while she pursued a Ph.D. and became a principal. Joan would support her Tuck by patiently doing needle point in the casino lobby. In Tuck’s sisters, Betsy and Bill and Rosemary and Dan, became her family as well. She loved seeing them and sharing all of the news from the children and grandchildren.
Born in Clifton, Joan loved her father, Harry Carmen, but adored her brothers Bill and George. Her brothers would give her money to get into the double feature or take the bus, acts of kindness she would remember for the rest of her life and tell her children about. She truly loved to visit her brothers, and their wives Sue and Bet, in Florida, especially bowling with Sue. While Joan demanded excellence from herself (there was that C in Comparative Government, however) and others professionally, the kindness she and her brothers shared would color all the relationships to come. She showed a calm, patient love for her family and friends accepting each one for their virtues and their faults. Frequently not the center of attention, Joan was incredibly funny if you took the time to listen to her.
Joan Walsh, her friend of 60 years, was a kindred spirit who shared her commitment to education and excellence. Despite disagreements about the thermostat, the two Joans enjoyed the theater, museums, their love of hats and travelling. Helen and Rudy Wanke and Ange and Ed McCran, friends of more than 40 years, shared dinners and travel and, possibly, even enjoyed All the King’s Men.
Charles, Edward and Michael, were the best sons a mother could have, as far as Joan was concerned. She loved each of them for being themselves and was happiest simply being with them. You would often find her patiently waiting for a PAL baseball game or swimming lesson to end. She would sit doing her crocheting or reading, happy to be with her sons. However, after spending so many years in the company of three sons and a husband, Joan was excited when first Diane, then Mary and then Pam became her daughters-in-law. Finally she had daughters who understood that a new pair of shoes really can change your life.
Her greatest happiness, however, were her grandchildren. Bobby, Andrew, Emma, Faith, Caleb, Nathaniel, Michael, Isabelle and now Hannah ‘the’ Joan. Reading to them, hearing about their day or correcting their homework. Joan would teach them the nuances of English and grammar. She elevated, whether or not they liked it, their lives with knowledge and vocabularies beyond the usual expectations with the occasional teacher saying, “kids today don’t use that language; it must be plagiarism”. Joan, ever the teacher, would have nothing to do with low expectations and would correct their view on teaching and their understanding of language as well.
Joan often said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.”
She lived doing what she loved most; teaching and learning. She was gifted with the things she most wanted; loving friends and family. Joan finally joined her Dearest One on February 22, 2017.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at www.giving.mskcc.org.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Memorial visiting will be held at the Vander May Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne, on Sunday, February 26, 2017 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m., during the visiting hours.
February 22, 2017
Services
Memorial visiting will be held at the Vander May Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne, on Sunday, February 26, 2017 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m., during the visiting hours.
84 of Wayne, died peacefully at home on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
When Joan Tucker first saw the light of understanding suddenly appear in the eyes of a student, she knew that teaching was her vocation and spent the next 50 years as a teacher, vice-principal, principal or professor. Even after she retired as principal of Mt. Olive High School in 1999, Joan continued to work as an adjunct professor at Caldwell College and with the Geraldine Dodge Foundation to improve teaching methods and curriculum. Believing that life-long learning and improvement were necessary to be a good educator and person, there was hardly a year in which she would not be studying for a degree or taking a class. After graduating from Montclair University, Cum Laude, in 1954, she went on to study at New York University. She received a Masters of Arts in Education from Montclair then a Masters of Letters from Drew University. At the age of 70, she received a Doctor of Letters from Drew University.
Dr. Joan, as her sons would later call her, started her career in 1954 in what is now Wayne Valley High School. It is here that she would meet Charles Tucker. They shared a love of the art and craft of teaching, the theater, travel, great quotations, and reading. How they loved reading! (They are the only people we have ever seen wear out a Kindle). She would be his “flower” and he would be her “dearest one” for the rest of their lives. Tuck would support his flower while she pursued a Ph.D. and became a principal. Joan would support her Tuck by patiently doing needle point in the casino lobby. In Tuck’s sisters, Betsy and Bill and Rosemary and Dan, became her family as well. She loved seeing them and sharing all of the news from the children and grandchildren.
Born in Clifton, Joan loved her father, Harry Carmen, but adored her brothers Bill and George. Her brothers would give her money to get into the double feature or take the bus, acts of kindness she would remember for the rest of her life and tell her children about. She truly loved to visit her brothers, and their wives Sue and Bet, in Florida, especially bowling with Sue. While Joan demanded excellence from herself (there was that C in Comparative Government, however) and others professionally, the kindness she and her brothers shared would color all the relationships to come. She showed a calm, patient love for her family and friends accepting each one for their virtues and their faults. Frequently not the center of attention, Joan was incredibly funny if you took the time to listen to her.
Joan Walsh, her friend of 60 years, was a kindred spirit who shared her commitment to education and excellence. Despite disagreements about the thermostat, the two Joans enjoyed the theater, museums, their love of hats and travelling. Helen and Rudy Wanke and Ange and Ed McCran, friends of more than 40 years, shared dinners and travel and, possibly, even enjoyed All the King’s Men.
Charles, Edward and Michael, were the best sons a mother could have, as far as Joan was concerned. She loved each of them for being themselves and was happiest simply being with them. You would often find her patiently waiting for a PAL baseball game or swimming lesson to end. She would sit doing her crocheting or reading, happy to be with her sons. However, after spending so many years in the company of three sons and a husband, Joan was excited when first Diane, then Mary and then Pam became her daughters-in-law. Finally she had daughters who understood that a new pair of shoes really can change your life.
Her greatest happiness, however, were her grandchildren. Bobby, Andrew, Emma, Faith, Caleb, Nathaniel, Michael, Isabelle and now Hannah ‘the’ Joan. Reading to them, hearing about their day or correcting their homework. Joan would teach them the nuances of English and grammar. She elevated, whether or not they liked it, their lives with knowledge and vocabularies beyond the usual expectations with the occasional teacher saying, “kids today don’t use that language; it must be plagiarism”. Joan, ever the teacher, would have nothing to do with low expectations and would correct their view on teaching and their understanding of language as well.
Joan often said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.”
She lived doing what she loved most; teaching and learning. She was gifted with the things she most wanted; loving friends and family. Joan finally joined her Dearest One on February 22, 2017.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at www.giving.mskcc.org.
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