Joan Blaetz Marder

Joan Timson Blaetz Marder passed away peacefully on February 4, 2025, in Burlington, North Carolina. She was born on April 10, 1930, in South Orange, New Jersey, to the late Mildred Adele Pierson Timson and Frank Weller Cassard Timson.

She grew up in South Orange and graduated from Columbia High School in 1948 and Bradford Junior College, where she majored in English, in 1950. She worked for several years for Blue Cross Blue Shield and AT&T, and had a brief modeling career in New York before marrying David Thomson Blaetz (1926-1997) of Maplewood, NJ, in 1952. Living first in Pittsburgh and then Erie, PA, they raised four children, David Thomson, Jr., Robin Jean, Peter Timson, and Daniel Pierson. In 2001, she married Gerard Marder (1924-2014), who never stopped proclaiming his good luck, and lived in both Asheville, NC, and Miami, FL, in addition to traveling extensively. She gained three step-children through her second marriage, enjoying a particularly close relationship with Vicki Marder.

She was an inspired mother to her four children and a true friend to people from all walks of life. Her charm, her beauty, her kindness, and her deep intelligence attracted many to her and many will feel grateful for having known her and sadness at her passing.

She was an engaged member of every community in which she lived, volunteering with Head Start, Meals on Wheels, and numerous other organizations; participating in book, bridge, and garden clubs; and playing tennis all of her life. For several years, she had a successful career at Jane Theuerkauf Realtors and served as the President of the Board of the Visiting Nurses Association in Erie. She was a devoted and active supporter of several Presbyterian churches, serving at various points as an elder, trustee, deacon, circle chair, and soprano in the choir. She received the greatest satisfaction from her involvement with the P.E.O. Sisterhood throughout her adult life. In her final years, she thoroughly enjoyed living at the Village at Brookwood in Burlington, where she found many new friends and bridge partners. As usual, she lived with integrity and independence, able, as she described it, to bloom wherever she found herself planted.

She is survived by the family for which she provided the center, including her brother Frank Weller Cassard Timson, Jr. (Ruth Keimig); children David (Mary Sandberg Blaetz), Robin (Cosmas Demetriou), Peter (Patty Gallagher Blaetz), and Daniel (Shannon Fry); step-children Jeff, Tony (Marisa), and Vicki (Christopher Austin) Marder, and seven grandchildren, including Gordon Spencer-Blaetz, Zachary Blaetz (Hunter), Meredith Spencer-Blaetz (Alyson York), Taylor Blaetz (Julie), Jarryd Blaetz, Evan Blaetz (Denise), and Isadora Blaetz. Her twin sister, Jean Timson, died in infancy.

Her life will be celebrated at the Village of Brookwood at 2:00 PM on February 15, 2025. At her request, her body has been donated to the Elon University Anatomical Gift Program. In due course, her ashes will be buried at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, near both of her beloved husbands.

The family would like to thank the caretakers at Brookwood and Hospice for their compassionate and loving care.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to either the P.E.O. Sisterhood: https://www.peointernational.org/make-a-gift/ or First Presbyterian Church of Burlington, NC.