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Joan Libby, 86, passed away in April 2018 after a 10-year battle with vascular dementia.

Joan was born in Columbus, Ohio. She was very proud to be the daughter of the first chancellor of George Mason University and the granddaughter of a trailblazer woman who became a family practice doctorin 1905. She received her bachelor's degree from The College of William and Mary and her master's degree from The University of St. Thomas.

Throughout her career she was a forward thinker. Her ground-breaking work at Virginia Beach Friends School served as the catalyst for her future endeavors in education. Joan went on to serve on the founding team that created and implemented the Vanguard and SIGHTS program in HISD. Creativity was vital to her pedagogy. She was very creative with her students during her 40 years as a teacher. Her teaching style encouraged students to tap into and evolve their own creativity. When she was in the classroom, she would implement high level thinking programs and games to stimulate her student's minds.

When her children were small, her hobby was sewing. She made matching outfits for her beloved family, including dresses for herself and her daughters as well as shirts for her husband and son. Her children were rarely seen wearing store bought clothes before they became school age. She also sewed dust ruffles and curtains for her family home. As the wife of a minister, she knew how to make a comfortable life for her family with very little means.

She lived in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband and young son at the beginning of her marriage. This was an experience that she was very proud of and spoke about in detail to anyone who would listen. She was a very proud mother and grandmother who was loved for her nurturing and caring nature. Her powerful spirit spread beyond her family to her children's friends, who refer to her as a guiding spirit to them. She was very understanding of all people and always found the good in them. She gave her children experiences with lots of fun books, crafting, and songs. Most of all she loved each one of them fully. She accepted and taught her children to accept each person that came into their lives regardless of background . She was a free and a creative spirit that built so many treasures from so little-an incredible role model!

When she was diagnosed with dementia, her family was able to keep her in her house until the last three years. She adapted to her new environments with grace and humor. At the end, she could not call her children or grandchildren by name, but she knew that they belonged to her. Dementia also caused her not to be able to tell her caregivers or family of any pain or suffering. This caused a lot of stress and feelings of helplessness for her caregivers and family. Even though the dementia progressed at a quicker pace in the last year of her life, she always had a smile on her face and would talk to the caregivers, a roaming cat in the garden, or her family. We need to advocate for a cure for dementia as it continues to be a leading cause of death. Please help our family in their quest to fund research for dementia and Alzheimer's, which impacts so many families today.