Joan Hastings

HASTINGS, Joan (Amory Loomis) Died peacefully at home in Northampton on the morning of November 15, surrounded by her husband, children and grandchildren. Born Joan Amory Loomis in 1938, in Boston, she resided in many places before coming to Worthington, MA in 1988 and then Northampton in 2000. She attended Wellesley College, was graduated from American University with a B.A. and received masters degrees from Northeastern University and Lesley University. While living in the Boston area, she worked for the Justice Resource Institute, co-founded Womens Enterprises, a non-profit agency which supported women trying to enter traditional blue-collar trades and ran a business importing and selling English pine furniture and accessories. Once west of the Connecticut River she demonstrated her advocacy of the many causes she believed in by serving at various times as president of the Hilltown Community Development Corporation, President of the Hilltown Community Health Centers, founder and president of the Fiber Art Foundation and Fiber Art Center of Amherst and as co-president of Snow Farm: The New England Craft Center. She was also an active supporter of the Womens Fund of Western Massachusetts, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, the Treehouse Foundation (foster children) and Enchanted Circle Theatre, among others. She leaves her husband of 52 years, Wilmot Hastings, three children, five grandchildren, three brothers and a sister, and many cousins, nieces and nephews. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, November 20, at 2PM, at the Village Congregational Church, Main Street, Cummington, MA. A reception will follow at the Cummington Community House.