JoAnn Johnson Woodman

Woodman—JoAnn Johnson Woodman, 93, on December 3, 2018, peacefully, at Pennswood Village in Newtown, Pa. JoAnn was born on August 21, 1925, in Parkersburg, W. Va., to Florence and Rozelle Johnson. Her parents died when she was a teenager, and she moved to live with her aunt Marie and Bill Burton at George School. Graduating from George School and Mount Holyoke College, she made lifelong friends there. She met her future husband, Lewis Woodman, in Young Adult Friends, and they married in 1950. After raising her children, she earned a master’s degree and taught fifth grade in Pennsylvania’s Centennial School District for 20 years, retiring in 1988.

She loved people and made it her mission to ensure that everyone felt welcome with a big smile. She brought her gift for learning names and welcoming newcomers from teaching into her long and active membership in Newtown (Pa.) Meeting; her residence at Pennswood Village; and her many volunteer activities for social justice in the League of Women Voters, the United Nations Association, the Peace Center, and Vita Family Literacy. She saw education as the primary pathway for moving ahead in the world, and the need for all people to have a voice.

She enjoyed learning new things and visiting new places (where she invariably made new friends). A peak experience for her was her attendance at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. After retiring Lew and JoAnn traveled both in the United States and abroad, often visiting Friends. She and Lew served on several Pennswood committees during the 21 years they lived there.

Her final act of service was donating her body to the Humanity Gifts Registry. JoAnn is survived by two children, Susan Hoskins (Scott) and Tom Woodman (Mary); six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.