Diana Marguerite Hall Jones' Obituary
Diana Marguerite Hall Jones
It is with great sadness that the family of Diana Jones announces her passing on July 12 at the age of 72 after a hard-fought battle with breast cancer. She will be lovingly remembered by her husband of 32 years, Kyle, and her daughters and sons-in-law, Susan and Joseph Mauro, Katherine Ray and Joshua Edelstein and Rebecca and Jeff Butcher. She is survived by her mother Constance Hall and was preceded in death by her father Eugene Hall. A dedicated grandmother to her five grandchildren she will be lovingly remembered by Dylan, Mackenzie, Parker, Caden and Turner. She will also be lovingly remembered by her identical twin sister Jackie, her brother-in-law Jim and her nephews, their wives and her great-nephews and great-nieces.
Her dedication to her family was utmost up through the very last days of her life. She was incredibly close to her sister in a way that is only known to twins (and those who love them). She was especially proud to have been a mother to three fiercely independent daughters and was a dependable maternal influence to the hundreds of children who passed through her classroom; her students gladly consumed the vast quantities of baked goods she delivered weekly. And she was a loving and supportive wife who understood the value of a committed partnership and the importance of shared time; late in her 60’s and up until the day of her cancer diagnosis, she was pursuing her pilot’s license to ensure that she and her aviator husband would be flying together in retirement.
Diana defined herself professionally as an educator. After completing an undergraduate degree from Connecticut College with honors in Economics, she also completed a Masters’ in Education from the University of Pennsylvania as well as supporting post-graduate coursework in the field. Her career spanned more than four decades in public schools in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio as well as several years at Iolani School in Hawaii, the alma mater of all three of her daughters. She spent the last two decades of her long career teaching at Shaker Heights High School. She was incredibly proud to be able give back in her profession through formal and informal leadership roles as a program director, team coordinator, workshop facilitator, Department Chair, peer coach and curriculum designer. She worked across the social studies curriculum, teaching geography, history and economics and also supporting specialized programs for gifted & talented students and the use of art to enrich the teaching of the social sciences.
As a teacher, her students mattered to her above all else. Their needs shaped her day in the classroom, and the long night and weekend hours that all great teachers invest in the success of their students. Her love of economics and her work championing the Federal Reserve Challenge at Shaker gave her the opportunity to bring multiple teams to the national championships and to win prize money that funded a computer lab for the school. Many of her students chose careers that were shaped by learning economics from her. Less obvious, but equally important, was the energy she invested in advocating for and supporting those students in her classroom who were battling obstacles in their path. She believed every one of her students deserved an excellent education and the opportunity to both graduate from high school and to attend college. Parents knew that their children would thrive in her classroom and under her care.
When not focused on her family or her students, Diana was an active community member and committed friend. Diana was proud to be part of the Coast Guard family by blood, by marriage and by choice. She was daughter to a WWII Coast Guard veteran and Academy graduate, and she and her sister both married Coast Guard aviators and benefited from the many friendships that a life in that service provides. In retirement, she volunteered through her church. She will be sorely missed by the friends, co-workers and neighbors she left behind who knew they could count on her for a hot meal, a shoulder to cry on, a cheering section at a game – or to be the only person who had actually read the book for book club. Diana was also the kind of woman who quickly turned strangers into friends, learning the life story of her seat mate on a flight or the cable repairperson.
A memorial service in remembrance of her life will be held on Friday, July 21, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. at Strongsville United Methodist Church, with receiving hours starting at 9:00 am prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made to the Strongsville United Methodist Church in support of their community programs. Directions, a map and a donation link are all available at www.strongsvilleumc.org.
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