Joyce Eileen Bauer (Jones)

Joyce Eileen (Jones) Bauer, 84, died peacefully on February 21, 2011 in Hartford. The daughter of Jay Erwin and Marion (Jarvis) Jones, she graduated from Syracuse NY North High School in 1944 as the Valedictorian of her class. She further received a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Syracuse University in 1948, a Master's Degree in Education from Central Connecticut State University in 1975, and a Master's of Education from Antioch University in 1982. Joyce was a wonderful person, intelligent, smart, attentive to detail, a beloved mother, flexible, ambitious, had a great moral sense, and imbued with the right motives. Throughout her life, she was willing to take stands on social issues; early on in 1949, she resigned from her college social sorority over the sorority's refusal to consider members not of European descent. Married in 1949 she lived with her husband, a municipal consultant, in several locations across the United States, before settling in Wethersfield, CT in 1961. She strongly supported the League of Women Voters. She was also a member of: The Great Meadows Conservation Trust, Welsh Society of Western New England, Friends of the Wethersfield Library, The Unitarian Society of Hartford where she was an alto singer in the church choir, the Board of Rowe Camp and Conference Center; and a supporter of the Hartford Symphony and Hartford Stage. Joyce had many diverse interests including astronomy and archeology, was an intrepid world traveler, a book club member, a strong swimmer and long time admirer of the resident loons at Deering Lake, NH. She became a licensed pilot of single engine aircraft in 1950. Her first job was as a math teacher at the Chestertown NY High School. After raising her children, she returned to work, first as a clerk at Traveler's, then as a Special Ed. teacher at Hartford's Quirk Middle School. Joyce also lived in Glastonbury, CT for 10 years before spending her final years at Avery Heights in Hartford. She is survived by her six children -- Beth Bauer and husband Marty Milkovic of Coventry, CT, Johanna Bauer and husband Sergio Torriente of New Rochelle, NY, Susan Weiss and husband Curtis of Grand Ledge, MI, Ben Bauer and wife Susan Gonzalez of Belmont, MA, Andy Bauer and wife Joanna Schnurman of Portland, CT, and Martin Bauer and wife Kathy Fagan of Milton, MA; 14 grandchildren; one great-grandchild and a sister, Zola Fulmer and husband Hugh of Northborough, MA. A Memorial Service is planned for Saturday (March 5th) 12:30 p.m. at The Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: The Unitarian Society of Hartford - Endowment, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. For online expressions of sympathy, please visit D'Esopo Funeral Chapel, www.desopo.com.