Joan Greer

Even as she battled Alzheimer’s in her final years, Joan would offer visitors her own chair or her meal and her drink.

“Joan, you…only wish to help and serve others,” her husband Bob once wrote. “You are the most unselfish person that I have ever known.”

She was born in 1936 to Gilbert and Carrol Lee Philen. In Joan’s early years, the Philens had dogs, horses, and “even a goat” named Cutie, “but Dad had to take Cutie away to a farm (?)”—she once wrote skeptically—"when the goat started butting our guests with his horns.”

If the sisters themselves were butting heads in a disagreement back then, as her younger sister Nancy remembers, "you could count on Joan to be the first to apologize.”

For many years as an adult, Joan threw herself into Memorial Assistance Ministries, a charity that gave her the “Presidential Award” for her tireless work.

In 1959 Joan married Bob, a banker. She was a schoolteacher in the early 1960s. By the end of the decade, with three kids and a fourth one soon to appear, Joan continued to help children, bringing museum exhibits to special education classrooms across Houston.

Dementia couldn’t take away her goodness. Alzheimer’s sapped her memory, but she never forgot her love for her kids, her love for the Lord, her love of music, or her love of vanilla ice cream.

Joan is predeceased by Bob Greer, to whom she was married for more than sixty years until his passing. Daughter Lois, one of their five children, died as an infant. Also preceding Joan in death were her parents Gilbert and Carrol Lee Philen, and Joan’s older sister Barbara.

Surviving her are her younger sister, and Joan’s four children and twelve grandchildren who miss her deeply and carry her memory with immense appreciation and gratitude.

During her final years, Joan received devoted caregiving from outside, private caregivers Isabel, Melissa and Aida.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that memorial contributions in Joan’s name be directed to The Bob and Joan Greer Scholarship, Chapelwood Foundation, 11140 Greenbay St., Houston, TX 77024, which awards scholarships to underprivileged students; or to the Brookwood Community, 1752 FM 1489, Brookshire, TX 77423