Born March 30, 1929, to Elsie and Morris Glik, Joy grew up in University City, Missouri. She attended Community and John Burroughs Schools, then earned a BA in Education from Vassar College in 1951. The following year she married Jerome Sandweiss, with whom she raised three children. Her husband died in 2013.
Joy built a three-decade-long career in early-childhood education, with a specialty in diagnosing and addressing learning disabilities. Starting at the Washington University Nursery School, she went on to co-chair a pioneering preschool program—sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women and later incorporated into the federal Head Start program—at the Blewett School in north St. Louis. In the years that followed, she taught at the Miriam School in Webster Groves and co-founded a private learning-disabilities consultation, contracting with Head Start and St. Louis-area schools to support teachers working with special-needs children. In 1970 she helped to establish the University City Children’s Center; she later served as President of its board. Sandweiss later earned an MAT in Special Education at Webster University.
Joy Sandweiss died with her curiosity and gracious personality intact. She enjoyed exercise and ice cream up to her final days. Through her long life she loved, and excelled at, cooking, tennis, traveling, gardening, birding, and spending time with family and friends. She devoted additional time to the boards of Springboard to Learning, the Green Center in University City, and the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. In 2019 she moved to Minneapolis, where her daughter Katherine (Kate) Sandweiss became her primary care-giver.
Joy is survived by her children—Kate Sandweiss (Gerald Richman) of Minneapolis; Martha (Marni) Sandweiss, of Santa Fe, NM; and Eric (Lee Ann) Sandweiss, of Bloomington, Indiana—her six grandchildren—Adam Horowitz, Sarah Horowitz, Rachel Richman (Kacie Lindsley), Maya Wolkowicz (David), Noah Sandweiss, and Ethan Sandweiss—as well as two great-grandchildren and her brother Joe Glik’s four children, to whom she remained close throughout her life. The family extends special gratitude to Patty Davies and Virginia Rovainen, her loving caregivers in her final years.
Funeral arrangements will be private; memorial tributes may be directed to the Joy and Jerome Sandweiss Dedicated Scholar Fund at the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, the Green Center, Springboard to Learning, University City Children’s Center, or the charity of your choice.
