Joan Therese Gossman

1960 - 2020

Joan Therese (Crogan) Gossman

Joan Therese (Crogan) Gossman, our precious wife and mother, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly of natural causes at age 60 on June 22, 2020, while vacationing on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Her family is devastated at the loss of her companionship, and because she has lost her life that she enjoyed to the fullest, with so much more to come.

Joan was born on May 3, 1960 in La Crosse, Wisconsin to Ervin and Marian (Eeg) Crogan. She was a resident of Saint Cloud, Minnesota with her husband Mitchell Gossman and family.

Joan started school at Harry Spence Elementary for Kindergarten, then attended St. Thomas More School for the rest of elementary school, and graduated from Aquinas High School, all in La Crosse. She worked at Erickson Pool in La Crosse and Happy Joe's Pizza of La Crosse while in school. She attended Western Wisconsin Technical College of La Crosse where she received a degree in accounting. Her first position after this was with Photo Art Metal of La Crosse as their accountant. She met her future husband, Mitchell Gossman, of Apple Valley, Minnesota on January 12, 1980 after an introduction from her friend, Jane (Kroner) Speer, who is Mitchell's cousin, feeling they would be a good match. She moved to Burnsville, Minnesota in 1982 and worked at Fireside Office Supply as their accountant. When Fireside closed, she started at Jostens as an accountant for the Scholastic Division at their corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. Joan and Mitch were engaged in New York City on March 17, 1984 at Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. They were married in La Crosse on June 22, 1985 at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in La Crosse, honeymooning in San Francisco. They lived in Eagan, Minnesota as Mitch finished medical school, and the family moved to Rochester, Minnesota for his continued training where Joan became a full-time mother. The family then lived in Wausau, Wisconsin for three years and moved to Saint Cloud, Minnesota where they lived for 20 years raising their family.

Joan loved reading, travel, dining, boating, cinema, cribbage and other family games, crossword puzzles, book club, volunteering for PTSA, and spending time at her cottage in Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin. She was a feared opponent in online word games, and Mitch will attest that he could never defeat her. Possibly her favorite activity would be relaxing at the beach, such as Nicolet Beach in Door County, reading a novel, talking with friends and family, enjoying a Diet Coke, and watching the waves. She loved her backyard and pond with deer, ducks, bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and more. She compared the love in her marriage to our nesting pair of cardinals, Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, as he expressed his affection by passing seeds to her. She had a special interest in the South, two of her favorite places on Earth being Louisiana and the Low Country of South Carolina and Georgia. Her favorite book was Gone with the Wind, and her favorite movie was… Gone with the Wind. She enjoyed listening to Garage Logic with Joe Soucheray. She enjoyed attending Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins baseball games, but her allegiance was always with the Brewers. Being a Wisconsin native, she was a staunch Green Bay Packers football fan. She led a very full life. Joan was a wonderful wife and mother for her family in every way, always placing their needs and happiness at top priority. She brightened up any room immediately when she entered, and had not a single dishonest or phony bone in her body. Mitch knew her to be a perfect girlfriend and wife, so beautiful both inside and out. She was so intelligent, witty, and a peerless conversationalist. She made us laugh constantly. She was a strong, yet gentle lady who carried herself with grace, and could be described, in only the positive sense, as "low maintenance" (except for home IT support, car maintenance, reaching high shelves, and opening pickle jars). Her kids knew her as a great role model on being kind to others, and as an ideal mom teaching them about how to become fine young gentlemen and a young lady. She was an instant friend for so many, loved by all, and will be deeply missed.

She is survived by her husband, Mitchell Gossman, and her four children: Grant Gossman of Lakeville, Minnesota, Connor Gossman of St. Cloud, Jonathon "Jack" Gossman of St. Cloud, and Madeline Gossman of St. Cloud. She leaves behind her brother Michael (Charlene) Crogan of La Crosse, brother Stephen (Donna) Crogan of Onalaska, Wisconsin, brother Peter Crogan of La Crosse, nieces Kristin (William) Mann of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, Kathryn (Nicholas) Foley of Hammond, Wisconsin, and great-nephews Noah, William, and Mason Foley of Hammond. She also leaves behind her beloved cats, Bennie and Jet. Cousins and friends are too numerous to list, she loved them all. She is preceded in death by her parents and her sister Susan (Crogan) Baker.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a time when friends and family feel safe enough to attend. We're optimistic it will be within a year.

We know she will be, in addition to so much more, eternally enjoying fresh garden tomatoes on the patio in La Crosse, with her dad Erv, listening to Bob Uecker broadcasting the Brewers play-by-play, with a distant thunderstorm crackling on an AM radio as the cicadas sing in the Mississippi Valley.