Joanne G. Wells

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Joanne G. Wells, 93, died peacefully on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023, at Kensington Place Senior Living in Columbus, Ohio, where she had lived for the past three years.

Joanne Ruth Glander was born on Dec. 18, 1929, in Dayton, Ohio, to Joe and Ruth (Burden) Glander, and grew up in northern Ohio, graduating from Bowling Green High School in 1947. She enrolled at the University of Oklahoma and completed a Bachelor of Music in 1951, majoring in piano and voice. She was an active, lifelong member of the Delta Gamma social sorority and Sigma Alpha Iota music sorority.

After graduation, she worked in the university registrar's office, where she met law student Robert Looper, whom she married in 1952. Joanne spent a year as one or the first female students admitted to the OU College of Law, before her studies were interrupted by travel to Oxford, England, where her new husband pursued graduate law studies and where she studied organ. During their three-year stay in England, their two children, John and Susan Looper, were born.

The family moved to Urbana in 1956, where Bob held a faculty position at the University of Illinois College of Law and Joanne gave private piano lessons in their home. Following Bob's death in 1960, Joanne undertook studies in library science at the UI, completing her master's degree in 1962. She worked as a cataloger of art, architecture and music at the University of Illinois Library from 1964 until her retirement in 1989.

Joanne married Paul Wells, a UI economics professor, in 1962. The couple enjoyed sabbatical travels to the University of California, Berkeley, Thammasat University in Bangkok, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Stanford University, the University of Hawaii, Cambridge University in England and the University of Adelaide in Australia.

During her years in Urbana, Joanne devoted much time to support of the arts, serving as an officer of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra Guild and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign's organ project. She was also a passionate political activist who worked for various civil-rights causes, served as a Democratic Party precinct committeewoman, volunteered for equal-rights and anti-war causes, and was generally a liberal hell-raiser.

Joanne and Paul retired to Menlo Park, Calif., in 1993. Following Paul's death in 1998, she continued as an active member of the San Francisco Symphony Guild and the local Democratic Party precinct. She moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 2020, after falling into poor health and to live closer to her family.

Joanne will be remembered by her many friends and colleagues for her sharp wit, unique style, risqué humour, love of dogs and gracious hospitality as the host of many epic dinner and cocktail parties.

She is survived by her children, John (Ruthann) Looper of Harsberg, Germany and Susan (David) Looper-Friedman of Bexley, Ohio; her brother, David Glander of Torrance, Calif.; her sister, Judy (Don) Baxter of Tabernash, Colo.; seven grandchildren, Noah (Stephanie) Looper-Friedman, Zachary (Jen) Patten-Friedman and Alexandra (Max) Rosen, all of Bexley, Ohio, Pascal (Lyann) Looper of Waskaganish, Quebec, Pierre Looper of Reading, England, and Gustav and Gisela Looper, both of Harsberg, Germany; and five great-grandchildren, Braxton, Ida, Sydney, Zev and Joshua.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Peace and Justice Center (pjcvt.org) or the ACLU (aclu.org).