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 Oak Ridge High School Class of 1966 - Latest News 01-23-2015 - Nancy Cole's mother Joanne Gailar died   January 22. 2015 6:08PM Joanne S. Gailar Joanne Stern Gailar, who was 11 days short of age 90, devoted wife and mother, Oak Ridge Pioneer, Soviet Civil Defense Analyst, Equal Opportunity Coordinator, and newspaper columnist, died of natural causes at home in Oak Ridge on Monday, Jan. 19. Born on Jan. 30, 1925, in New Orleans, Joanne attended Newcomb College for three and one-half years and later (in 1965} received a B.A. degree 'with highest honors' from the University of Tennessee. Joanne came to Oak Ridge in 1945 with her first husband, Ralph P. Levey, Jr., a G.l. in the Army Special Engineering Detachment (SED), and worked at the K-25 Plant on the day the atom bomb was detonated over Hiroshima. In 1946, she joined the Current History Section of the Oak Ridge Women's Club, along with the Morning and Evening Book Club Selections, for which she gave many book reviews over the years. Other volunteer activities included serving on the Girl Scout Council and acting as discussion leader in the Oak Ridge League of Women Voters. Following the death of her husband in October 1965, she began her career at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the Civil Defense Research Project, an interdisciplinary group of physicists, engineers, doctors of veterinary medicine, and social scientists, originally headed by Eugene Wigner. After establishing a subject index for the documents, Joanne became a Soviet Civil Defense Analyst, publishing over 20 articles on the Soviet civil defense, including three co-published with Wigner. In 1974, she became the Affirmative Action Coordinator at ORNL, and, in 1976, Equal Opportunity Coordinator for the four installations of the Union Carbide Nuclear Division, (later Martin Marietta Energy Systems). In 1969, she married Norman Gailar, a University of Tennessee physics professor and researcher, who died in February 2013. Survivors include: daughter and son-in-law, Nancy L Cole and Ted Cole of Bradenton, Fla.; son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Teresa Levey of Knoxville; grandchildren, Brandy N. Helton and Cory N. Helton and Lindsey; great grandchildren, Ava Faulkner and Ella Helton; brother, Henry Stern; niece, Cathy Spangler; nephews, David and Michael Stern; and great-niece and -nephew, Deborah and James Spangler. Following her retirement in 1988, Joanne returned to her first love, writing. In addition to writing a weekly column (“Musings”) in The Oak Ridger for almost 15 years and, later, a monthly column for VISIONS, her publications include the book “Oak Ridge and Me: From Youth to Maturity,” three essays in “These Are Our Voices: The Story of Oak Ridge,” and three articles in the Christian Science Monitor. In addition, she served for six years as a monitor-and then-as a reader at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Joanne appeared briefly on the History Channel's “Modern Marvels” series in “The Manhattan Project;” in an audiotape made for “The Voice of America;” and in the first of the two-part “Secret City Movie.” A brief memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26, at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike. A reception and fellowship with friends will follow. Memorial contributions may be sent to Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC), the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, or the contributor's favorite cause. Return to Latest News |
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