Joyce Williams Lee

Born on June 30, 1941, in Greensburg, she was the middle child of Richard Nelson Williams and Doris Emily Blackman. Joyce had two beloved siblings – an older brother, Richard B. Williams, and a younger sister, Diana Williams Frear. On July 25, 1964, she married David Bierly Lee of State College, who predeceased her on August 18, 2024.

A resident of State College for 60 years, Joyce leaves behind a devoted family who will deeply miss her – two children, Matthew D. Lee and his wife Elinor Haider of Philadelphia, and Amanda Lee Ivory and her husband Ralph Ivory of Wayne; and five grandchildren, Christopher Ivory, Campbell Lee, Ross Lee, David Ivory, and Nolan Lee. In addition to her parents and spouse, she was predeceased by a daughter, Allison Elizabeth Lee, and her older brother and younger sister.

Joyce was a dedicated educator whose life was shaped by her early years as a high school English teacher. Her love of books, her appreciation for a well-crafted sentence, and her insistence on proper grammar were not confined to the classroom but were evident in every aspect of her personality. She was also a master planner, organizer, and list-maker; a passionate gardener; a gifted pianist; and, most of all, a loving and dedicated spouse, mother, and grandmother. A beloved aunt, she was lovingly called “A.J.” by all of her extended family members.

After graduating from Greensburg High School in 1959, Joyce attended Bucknell University, proudly graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English in only three years. In 1962, she began a career as an educator that would span the next five decades. After being introduced to her future husband by her brother, Joyce moved to State College, joined the State College Area School District, and taught ninth and tenth grade high school English for the next decade.

Joyce enrolled in Penn State’s Graduate College of Education where she began what would become her professional passion: elementary school reading instruction. She obtained a master’s degree in developmental and remedial reading, and served as teaching and research assistant at Penn State. In 1977, while simultaneously raising two young children, she successfully defended her dissertation and graduated with a Doctor of Education degree. At the time, the Daily Collegian featured Joyce in an article about graduate students balancing the demands of studying and family, and famously published a photograph of Joyce working at her PSU office with a two-year old Amanda playing with toys on the floor nearby.

In 1977, Joyce rejoined the school district as a Chapter 1 reading specialist at the Houserville and Lemont elementary schools where she helped countless young students with reading difficulties. She was enormously proud of her work and loved hearing from former students who would years later thank her for helping them learn to read. Later in her career, Joyce became an administrator and served as the K-12 coordinator of reading for the entire school district until her retirement in 2002. Throughout her career, Joyce continued to teach as an adjunct professor at Penn State, and taught at Juniata College after retirement. Joyce was particularly proud to have passed along her passion for teaching to her daughter, Amanda, who followed her into the profession.

Joyce endured a series of profound losses during her life that would shape the remainder of her days. She lost her firstborn child, mother, and brother within the span of only a few years, and her sister tragically passed away just a few years later. In the wake of these devastating losses, she committed herself to preserving and strengthening the bonds of family. For the rest of her life, she served as the connective tissue between the remaining members of her extended family and the generations that followed.

Nothing was more important to Joyce than maintaining those connections after losing so many of those closest to her. Her signature family gathering was an annual beach week, starting in Ocean City, New Jersey, in the 1970s, and later at Seabrook Island, South Carolina. Highlights of these trips included sunset happy hours on the beach, competitive egg tosses, nighttime beach walks led by A.J., and of course a custom t-shirt with that year’s slogan for every family member in attendance.

Joyce received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Penn State College of Education’s Leadership and Service Award, which recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in the field of education. She was also recognized by the Maroon and Gray Society of the State College Area School District Education Foundation. In keeping with her lengthy career as an educator, she believed strongly in community service and served on the boards of Counseling Service of Bellefonte; the Child Development Counsel of Centre County; Centre Stage, and State College Meals on Wheels. She was a longtime member of Grace Lutheran Church.

Joyce was an accomplished writer, authoring numerous professional articles, contributing chapters to many books, and publishing her dissertation. But her proudest publication was a book that she edited for her sister Diana, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Published only two months before Diana passed away, A Woman for All Seasons: Coping with the Stress of Multiple Sclerosis was Diana’s story of retaining hope and faith in the midst of a debilitating disease. Translated into numerous foreign languages, Diana’s book was distributed through the U.S. and the world by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Joyce had a tremendous range of interests that reflected her overall approach to life. She loved to travel, and while Dave would only rarely agree to leave Centre County, she did convince him to join her on memorable cruises through Alaska and the Panama Canal and a family trip to Wales. Joyce was a passionate genealogist, spending hundreds of hours tracing the Williams family history back generations to a tiny village in Wales where she located distant relatives with whom she corresponded and eventually met in person during a trip with Matt in 1982. Four years later, during a teaching sabbatical, she and Amanda lived on a sheep farm in Wales for several months while Joyce worked as an observer of The National Writing Project at the University of Wales.

Joyce possessed a deep love of music, and in retirement she was determined to re-learn the piano, making good on a promise she made to her mother as a child to someday return to the piano as an adult. As a retirement gift she purchased a grand piano and did exactly that.

Joyce spent hours playing her favorite songs, spanning Broadway show tunes to hits from Billy Joel and Elton John. Joyce loved the performing arts, and traveled to New York City every year to see the latest Tony Award-winning plays and musicals. She relished collecting the Playbill program and ticket stub for every Broadway play she ever saw.

Joyce was a devoted spouse to her husband, Dave, and just prior to his death they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. In retirement, Joyce and Dave took tremendous joy in their second home at Seabrook Island, which she named “Castell Tywod,” which means sandcastle in the language of her Welsh ancestors. For more than twenty years, Joyce and Dave spent winters there walking their dog Lily on the beach in the beauty of the South Carolina low country.

An avid reader, Joyce was never without a book in her hands and meticulously read the Sunday New York Times (after Dave would pick it up from the newsstand at the Autoport). She passed along her love for reading by establishing a “book of the month club” for her grandchildren and great-nieces and great-nephews, providing each of them a hand-selected children’s book with a personal inscription for the first few years of their lives. Even in retirement Joyce continued her passion for reading by “adopting” Mt. Zion Elementary School near their South Carolina home and each year would select new books for the school’s library.

Joyce loved baseball and was a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirates fan, a trait she inherited from her father. One of her most treasured possessions is a “Green Weenie” from the 1966 baseball season. She passed along her zeal for Pirates baseball to her son, Matt, and they made frequent trips to Pittsburgh to cheer on the Bucs at Three Rivers Stadium and later at PNC Park, most recently to celebrate her 70th birthday.

Joyce’s greatest joy in life was undoubtedly being “Grammy” to her five grandchildren. She cherished the time spent with them in State College and at Seabrook Island, and loved reading the latest children’s book to them on the couch or front porch swing. Joyce was immensely proud of watching her five grandsons grow and mature into fine young men.

Joyce’s family is particularly grateful to the kind and caring staff at Echo Lake and Holisticare Hospice for the loving and compassionate care they provided during the final years of Joyce’s life.

Visitation will be on Friday, June 5, 2026, at 5:30 p.m., at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 South Atherton Street, State College. A memorial service celebrating Joyce’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at Grace Lutheran Church, 205 South Garner Street, State College, officiated by Pastor Carolyn K. Hetrick. Burial will follow the service at St. Peter’s Lutheran and Reformed Cemetery, Rebersburg.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to State College Area Meals on Wheels (https://scmow.org/), the Centre Foundation (https://centrefoundation.org/), or the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org).

Online condolences and memories of Joyce may be offered at www.kochfuneralhome.com.