Class: 1967
Major: Spanish
Residence: Minnetonka, MN
Deceased: November 6, 2011
Alumni survivors: Mr. William R. Whitney ’67 P96 W67 (Widow/Widower), Mr. Scott W. Simpson ’96 (Child)
Joanne Louise 66, nee Wheeler, died peacefully at her home in Minnetonka, MN, on Nov. 6, 2011. Joanne was born in Evanston, IL, the youngest of three daughters of Norris and Ruth Wheeler and was educated in Niles Township, IL, public schools. On graduation from high school in 1963, she entered Carleton College in Northfield, MN, from which she graduated in 1967 with a BA in Spanish. She received her MEd in 1968 from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. In August 1968 Joanne married William (Bill) Simpson. The couple lived in Cockeysville, MD, and Joanne taught in the Baltimore County public schools until 1974, when their son Scott was born. In 1977 they moved to Jacobus, PA, and their daughter Kristine was born in 1978. After the death of her husband in 1985, Joanne returned to teaching in the Dallastown Area, PA, public schools. In 1990 Joanne renewed her acquaintance with her Carleton classmate William (Bill) Whitney, when both were involved in planning their 25th class reunion. Bill had lost his wife in 1984. Joanne and Bill married in December 1991, and Joanne moved to Minnetonka, MN, where she was a substitute teacher in the public schools and worked in her husband’s business until their retirement in 2005. Joanne was preceded in death by her parents; her sister Barbara (the late Harold) Krueger; and her first husband. She is survived by her husband Bill; her son Scott Simpson (Tatia Kusumoto) and their children, Seneca and Mayu, of Burlingame, CA; her daughter Kristine Simpson of Seattle, WA; and her stepchildren, Steven Whitney of Manhattan, MT, and Sara Whitney (Ted Omlid) of New York, NY. She is also survived by her sister Margaret (the late Stewart) deLacey of Geneva, IL, as well as many cousins, nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. The family wishes to thank Dr. Barbara Bowers and the nurses, pharmacists, staff, and volunteers in the Medical Oncology Clinic at Fairview Southdale Hospital, who cared for Joanne and became her second family over the past eight years. Thanks also to Dr. Timothy Hobday of the Mayo Clinic and to Fairview Hospice. Special thanks go to Joanne’s niece Kris Roulo and her best friend June Creek for always being available through the years with a cheerful call or card to lift Joanne’s spirits.
Joanne (Wheeler) Whitney, member of the Carleton class of ’67 and beloved wife of classmate Bill Whitney, died on November 6, 2011. Her valiant battle with cancer since 2003 included mostly good years until the end. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bill and their family.
Bill arranged a Celebration of Life for Joanne, held on Saturday, Dec. 3, at Minnetonka United Methodist Church.
The program included the following:
Gone from My Sight
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!”
“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”
And that is dying.
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Of all of the women I’ve encountered during my lifetime Joanne was singular in at least one respect: she seemed to be perfectly comfortable in the presence of men–in a pleasant, easy-going, relaxed fashion that made her very enjoyable to be around. Perhaps all women develop attribute as they mature, but Joanne displayed this agreeable characteristic much earlier than most.
Roger Forsberg ’67
Comments
Of all of the women I've encountered during my lifetime Joanne was singular in at least one respect: she seemed to be perfectly comfortable in the presence of men--in a pleasant, easy-going, relaxed fashion that made her very enjoyable to be around. Perhaps all women develop attribute as they mature, but Joanne displayed this agreeable characteristic much earlier than most.