Joan Telonicher Bistrin passed away the morning of April 10, 2007.
Joan was born in Oakland and raised in Humboldt County, where she attended the Humboldt State College Elementary School. She attended Humboldt State College and later graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts.
The arts were one of her life-long passions, and all who knew her appreciated her talents and benefited from her aesthetic wisdom.
Joan taught school in both Redwood City and Arcata. While living in Eureka, she volunteered her services to many community organizations, including Florence Crittenden, later Humboldt Sponsors. In Eureka, she was producer and commentator for a local television feature, Points of Interest, and she was a buyer for The Irish Shop. In Ukiah, she was on the Boards of the Grace Hudson Museum, the Mendocino College Foundation, and the Ukiah Symphony.
Joan was a woman who lived a life of grace. She surrounded herself with art and music, and she had an affinity for the natural world, knowing its plants and animals by name and appreciating the beauty of its light and color. She had a strong and enduring sense of family, and loved being surrounded by grandchildren and extended family members. She had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed entertaining them. She had a lifelong love of reading and of travel, and a vital interest in politics. The people in Joan”s life benefited from her remarkable capacity to recognize essential qualities of people and to care for them, with respect and love, when they needed it most.
Joan is preceded in death by her parents, Margaret and Fred Telonicher. She is survived by her husband, Harry Bistrin; sisters, Janice Stokes and Margaret Stromberg; children, Catherine Arnold and Brett Norberry and Brett”s wife Alison Norberry; stepchildren, Karen Bistrin and her husband Rod Duncan, Tina Griffith and her husband Fred Griffith, Kate Connor and her husband Lindsay, and Emil Bistrin and his wife Maria; grandchildren, Megan and Collin Arnold, Shannon Garza, Laurelyn, Madelyn and Marilyn Norberry, Hannah Truitt, Max, Lily, and Ella Connor, and Sara and Gabrielle Bistrin; and great-grandchildren, David Jimenez and Alyssa Garza. Her entire family loved her dearly, including her cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews.
Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, April 13 at Eversole Mortuary, 141 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. A reception will follow at the Bistrin home, 455 Fircrest, Ukiah.
Donations may be made to the Grace Hudson Museum, the Mendocino College Foundation, the Ukiah Symphony, or a charity of your choice.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary 462-2206
Please sign the guest book at www.record-bee.com. Click “Obituaries.”
(Published in the Record-Bee on Thursday, April 12, 2007.)
