Joanne Wentz Stephenson, passed away Tuesday, October 21, 2014, at the age of 85..
Joanne was married to the late Robert Ragan Stephenson, who died in 1978. She is survived by her four children (Tom Stephenson (Juanita), Kate Stephenson, Jean R.S. Blair (Bruce), and Rob Stephenson, Jr. and seven grandchildren (Robert Atticus Blair, Nicholas Blair, Athena Blair, Ragan Todd, Daniel Todd, Ragan Stephenson, and Brooks Stephenson). She was the daughter of the late Kathryn and Wink Wentz of Pittsburgh
Joanne was born in Pittsburgh on November 15, 1928. Educated at The Ellis School and The Baldwin School, she earned a BS in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She married Rob Stephenson of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1951. Rob worked for ALCOA, and the company moved the family from Knoxville to Massena, New York, then to Port Lavaca, Texas, and, in 1969, to Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
Joanne began her working life as a volunteer Girl Scout troop leader, initially to benefit her daughters. Eventually, she combined her scout leadership experience with her passion for helping the developmentally disabled and started a Girl Scout troop for developmentally disabled adults. After her youngest child started school, she began working with the Allegheny Chapter of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC). This evolved into a career with ARC, during which she published workbooks to help the developmentally disabled transition from institutional living to independent living.
Always a traveler, in 1990 she took a trip to Nepal. She was fascinated by the culture, and moved by the terrible poverty. With the help of a young man from Nepal, she founded a private foundation to build and operate a school in the young man’s remote mountain village. She retired from ARC Allegheny in 1992 to devote herself to the school project and her many other travel adventures. The relationship with the village of Rawa Dolu continued for 25 years, until an unstable political situation forced her to withdraw. In the meantime, she had also helped start an adult literacy program, a library, a school dormitory, and a program to market crafts made by the villagers. She provided scholarships for village children to attend the University in Kathmandu, and sponsored several young Nepalis in studies at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh.
In addition to workbooks for the developmentally disabled, Joanne published two books about her experiences in Nepal and several children’s books, particularly in collaboration with Wellesley classmate and illustrator Helene Horner Welles. Almost all of the material for these books came from Nepal.
Joanne was a member of Ross Mountain Park Club and Oakmont United Methodist Church.
The family will receive visitors Sunday, November 2, 2014, at English Funeral Home & Cremation Svc., Inc. 378 Maryland Ave., Oakmont, PA between 3:00 and 5:00 pm. The funeral service will be held on Monday, 10:00 am at the North Mausoleum in The Homewood Cemetery at 1599 South Dallas Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to FINCA International (1201 Fifteenth St NW, Washington DC, 20005), Pro-Literacy Worldwide (104 Marcellus Street, Syracuse, NY 13204), Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (800 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15222), or Ross Mountain Endowment Fund (1910 Cochran Road, Manor Oak One, Suite 380, Pittsburgh PA 15220-1205).