Joan Hughes Coleman

1932 - 2023

News story
By Vincent Lucarelli
Blade staff writer

Joan Hughes Coleman, who devoted her life to underrepresented crime victims in the Ohio legal system, died Thursday in her Columbus apartment. She was 91.

She died of natural causes and was under hospice care, son Michael said.

Formerly of Toledo, Mrs. Coleman spent most of her working life as a "community activist," a term that took varying forms over the years.

With a background in education and social work, throughout the 1980s, she worked with the Black Women's Democratic Caucus, and the Democratic Party, and was involved in bringing Jesse Jackson to Toledo during his 1988 presidential campaign.

She also enlisted the help of decorated speakers like Montel Williams to go into local schools to speak for staying in school and against drug abuse through work with the United Way and Substance Abuse Services Inc.

Success in these areas led to a different enlistment in 1993 from then Lucas County Prosecutor Tony Pizza, who was starting a program to advocate for crime victims through his office.

"He started the victim's assistance unit with just Joan, she was a unit of one," said current Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, a longtime friend. "She was absolutely magnificent, and she turned that unit of one into a unit of 25 or 30 people."

The program quickly grew into all the local courts, and several local neighborhoods, police stations, and schools, and led to the creation of several offshoots, including the Victims Forum, which focused on crime prevention through speaking with young people.

Mrs. Coleman also helped create Advocates for Victims and Justice Inc., a nonprofit which raised extra money for the wider victim's assistance program's activities.

According to a profile that appeared in The Blade in 2002, what would come to be called the Toledo/Lucas County Victim Witness Assistance Program was about leading crime victims through a legal process that can be confusing.

As the program's executive director, Mrs. Coleman herself would represent the concerns of victims of all kinds of crimes to the assistant prosecutor and judge handling a case, while also providing emotional support.

She was known to visit homes of grieving families and be available to those in the program at all hours of the night.

"All of us feel the pain," Mrs. Coleman said in 2002. "They need to know that all of those feelings are normal and that one day it will get just a little bit better; that one day they will wake up and they won't be crying, that they won't need to go to the cemetery."

She retired from the program in 2006 but remained present and available to those that came after her for as long as she was able, Mrs. Bates said.

To Mrs. Coleman's family, the work came naturally for her.

"She loved the work and loved helping people," said Michael Coleman, who served four terms as mayor of Columbus from 2000-2016, and is still based in central Ohio as a partner in the law firm Ice Miller. "She loved comforting people in times of distress. She had a passion for the role. It meant everything to her to be able to assist the plight of victims in Toledo."

Mr. Coleman said his mom helped around 93,000 people and raised more than $1 million for victim's compensation during the decade plus she held the Lucas County position. He noted that she had a big effect on his choice to get into law and public office.

"She had a major impact on my life on engaging in helping people. I got a lot of that from her and my dad who was a doctor," he said. "It was a theme throughout our family."

Mrs. Coleman married Dr. John H. Coleman in August, 1953. He preceded her in death in 2016.

Mrs. Coleman was passionate and determined even as a mom, her son said. As she grew older and stepped more away from her work, she still felt she needed to be apart of something.

"She has always been engaged with people," he said. "They asked in the assisted living facility she was in, if she wanted to play cards, do dominoes or games and she said 'no, I want to talk to people.' She was all in to people and her life was driven by other people's lives."

Mrs. Bates also noticed these vibrant qualities in her friend, even during a visit to Columbus this summer with current victim assistance program head Vera Sanders.

"She and I went to Columbus and saw [Joan] and she was as spicy as ever," Mrs. Bates said, noting how Mrs. Coleman was always a "whirling dervish" with tons of energy. "She was still Joan, the Joan that we knew.

"She was a fierce warrior and a bright star," Mrs. Bates said. "There will never be another one like her."

Born March 11, 1932, in Gary, Ind., Mrs. Coleman was a graduate of that city's Theodore Roosevelt High School and later attended Indiana University and the University of Toledo.

She is survived by sons Michael, and Jeffrey Coleman, daughter Dr. Linda Coleman and several grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

A son, David, died in 1977.

A celebration of life will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday at First Church of God, 3480 Refugee Rd,, in Columbus, with a funeral service to follow at noon.

Graveside services will take place at 1 p.m. Friday at Ottawa Hills Memorial Park, 4210 Central Ave., in Toledo.

The family suggests tributes be made to the Toledo/Lucas County Victim Witness Assistance Program.