Joan Donovan Daschbach passed away peacefully in San Mateo, California on May 12, 2015, a week after her 87th birthday, with her son John at her side. Joan succumbed to complications from a retinal melanoma.

Joan was born May 5, 1928 in San Marino to John and Elsie Donovan. She attended Occidental College. After teaching in Germany she taught kindergarten on Balboa Island and Coronado where she met the love of her life, Robert Daschbach, stationed in San Diego. After Bob returned to his residency at Stanford without proposing, Joan took the train to San Francisco and told him it was time to fish or cut bait. They married in 1957 and settled in Burlingame when Bob started his pediatrics practice in San Mateo. They moved to San Mateo in 1959 where Joan resided for the rest of her life.

Joan survived two major car accidents, was a 27-year breast cancer survivor and lived eight years after her retinal melanoma, all with grace. She and Bob had two children, John and Carolyn. Joan was a devoted mother but returned to part-time work when the children were in high school. She was a great organizer and always had many projects underway for her family at home and away, including ski camping and backpacking trips, and later in life, charities she was deeply involved in. She taught Sunday school for a quarter century at the Congregational Church of San Mateo and many of her students remained in touch through her life.

Joan is preceded in death by her husband Bob; her brother Jack (SPHS '43), and her daughter Carolyn. She is survived by her son John and grandsons Lyle and Cooper.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 31, 2015