Joan de la Cova

Joan de la Cova died at her home on January 23, 2010. She was 66.Joan was born in Baltimore, MD to Mary (Geckle) and Paul de la Cova as the eldest of three children. She was raised in Baltimore and the Midwest. Joan graduated from Jackson High School in Jackson, MI in 1961. She spent her junior year at the Universidad de Madrid and received her B.A. (1965) and M.A. (1971) from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Joan obtained her Ph.D. in Spanish from Columbia University in 1987. She married her husband, John H. (Jack) Schaller II, in 1978 and their daughter, Ana, was born in 1980. Jack and Joan lived in New York for many years as well as New Jersey and around the Midwest. During that time, Joan taught Spanish and Spanish Literature at SUNY-New Paltz, Drew University, University of Wisc.-Menomonie, Indiana-Purdue U. of Fort Wayne, Bradley University, and the University of Purdue-Calumet. She and her family moved to Vancouver in 1992. Here, she taught at Portland State University and volunteered as an ESL tutor at Clark College. She greatly enjoyed teaching and stopped only when her health forced her to retire. Most recently, she had been working on translating the poems of 20th century Spanish poet Claudio Rodriguez for publication.Joan was an incredibly kind and gentle person of keen intellect and generous spirit. She lived with multiple sclerosis for over 30 years leading up to her death. The strength, dignity, and courage she showed in dealing with that incurable, debilitating disease was a powerful and inspiring example to everyone who knew her. In her youth, Joan was very active and outdoorsy; hiking, kayaking, and skiing with Jack. She loved to travel on adventures abroad and was always up for a trip down to the Jersey Shore or out to the Oregon Coast. In later years, when she was less mobile, she enjoyed sitting in her sunny garden, reading, and listening to NPR. Above all, she loved to get together with friends and family and talk; she always joked that she had the “Geckle gene” for gab! Joan was proceeded in death by her father Paul and husband Jack. She is survived by her mother Mary, daughter Ana and son-in-law Insa Coly, brother Joe and his wife Alice and their children, and brother Eric and his wife Elisabeth and their son. She is also survived by her brother-in-law Doug Schaller and his wife Bobbie and their children, sister-in-law Peg Hyland and her husband Dennis and their children, and brother-in-law David Schaller and his wife Surang Evans. Joan’s family wishes to thank her doctors and caregivers, especially Dr. Paul Jacobsen, Dr. Jaime Nicacio, Melissa Combelic, and Nana Sakho Goudiaby.A funeral Mass will be held at 11am on Saturday, Feb. 6th at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church with internment at Evergreen Memorial Gardens to follow.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Joan’s name to the MS Society or to Doctors Without Borders USA.