Joan Carolyn Smith

JOAN CAROLYN SMITH
February 5, 1948 ~ March 2, 2025
With loving remembrance we announce the peaceful passing of Joan Carolyn Smith on March 2, 2025 at the age of 77 at the Ray Hickey Hospice House in Vancouver, WA. Joan was born Joan Carolyn Stokely on February 5, 1948 in Oklahoma City, OK. She had a very fulfilling life in service to others.
After receiving her Bachelors in Education degree from the University of Oklahoma Joan began her career as a pre-school teacher in Ft. Collins, CO. While getting her Masters in Early Childhood Development degree at Colorado State University she authored two col-lege classes incorporating innovative multi-media presentations.
After receiving her Masters degree Joan started her own business College Bound to assist high school students in selection of colleges and universities. Through detailed analysis of their skills and desires she helped match numerous students with the appropriate col-leges and universities.
When her husband's job took them to the Pacific Northwest Joan extended her lifelong love of reading by volunteering at the Wilsonville, OR Public Library and later at the Bainbridge Island, WA library. She authored the first Wilsonville library news letters and became a Wilsonville Library Board member. Later she became a research librarian at the Canby, OR and Camas, WA libraries.
In addition to her steadfast love and support of her husband Joan served as caretaker of her mother for 16 years after her father's passing. She devoted her life to supporting her loved ones and we are eternally grateful. Because of her unswerving Faith, now she con-tinues her work with God.
Joan's hobbies included reading, tap dancing and dogs. Her deep love for dogs started in her childhood with her first dog Tangles. In adolescence she discovered tap dancing which she continued for 20 years as an adult in Wilsonville, Multnomah Village and Van-couver; the license plate on her car was LOV2TAP.
She is survived by her loving husband David Smith of Camas, WA and her brother Craig Stokely of Tucson, AZ. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to:
Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. San Rafael, CA https://www.guidedogs.com and
Ray Hickey Hospice House, Vancouver, WA.
https://www.peacehealth.org/locations/vancouver/peacehealth-ray-hickey-hospice-house
A celebration of Joan's life will be held on Sunday April 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM at Evergreen Memorial Gardens, 1101 N.E. 112th Ave, Vancouver, WA https://ww.evergreenmemorialgardens.com.