Joan Louise Lee, a longtime South Orange resident and community leader and volunteer, passed away from brain cancer on September 27 at the age of 69 , according to an obituary in the Star-Ledger.
Lee was a cardiac intensive care nurse, past president of the PTA and the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School Board, and chaired the Columbia High School scholarship fund for more than 10 years. She was named a South Orange “Villager of the Month” in 2014, and in 2015 was honored by the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race as a “Celebrating Integration” awardee.
According to the obituary, “Joan lived the core principles of celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion in her daily life and was a tremendous role model for her loved ones.”
She is survived by husband, James, four children and nine grandchildren. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral Mass at Our Lady Of Sorrows Church, 217 Prospect St., South Orange, on Monday, Oct. 2 at 10:30 a.m. Interment is at Resurrection Cemetery, Staten Island, N.Y. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Joan’s honor to the Columbia High School Scholarship Fund, www.chssf.org.
