Joan Cenedella died on February 2, 2023, at age 86. She died peacefully at home in the care of her partner Fran Volkmann, and a core group of loving friends.
Joan loved her life and her world. From her earliest years she was the inveterate observer, of nature and of people. And she captured her world with photography and most especially with the written word. She lived a life of connection to others and brought warmth, insight, and wit into the lives of those she touched.
Joan was born in Milford, MA on September 14, 1936, the middle of three children. When she was eight, her family moved to Wilton CT so that her father could commute daily to New York city where he worked as a radio writer. In 1950 Joan and her siblings joined her father and stepmother in New York’s upper West Side, where she lived for the next forty-four years.
After graduating from CCNY in 1959, Joan worked for several years as a book editor at TY Crowell Publishing Company. In 1968 at the age of 32 and with financial aid from her father, she enrolled at the Bank Street College of Education, earned her Masters’ Degree in Education, and became, a year later, a teacher of children at Bank Street’s School for Children. After teaching for ten years, she moved into administration and served, first as Curriculum Advisor, then as Head of the Upper School and later as Dean of Children’s Programs. To extend her interest in the philosophy and practice of progressive education, Joan earned her doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College. In 1989 She became Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Bank Street College of Education. Throughout her life she remained connected to many of the people she had taught as children. They shared their lives with her, asked her for advice, and in many ways showed their affection for her as the teacher “who really knew me and cared about me as a person.”
Joan retired from Bank Street in 1994 as she joined Fran in Northampton. She went on to serve for two years as Acting Director of a private school in Greenfield, then, for three years, as a consultant in the Northampton public schools, working particularly closely with Gwen Agna at the Jackson Street School.
Joan and Fran traveled extensively, across America, and in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In more recent years they spent winter times in Sanibel, FL and summer times in Maine, where they found enduring friends, and where Joan documented in photographs and writing her extraordinary experiences and perspectives.
When she came to Northampton, Joan found the time and space to focus more fully than ever on her writing. From her earliest years as a child, Joan was a writer, and her passion for writing was honored when, in her junior year in college, she won the national Mademoiselle Magazine short story contest of 1958. From then on, she spent much of her free time writing, and published short pieces in local Upper West Side publications. In Northampton Joan joined Carol Edelstein’s Thursday Night Writing Group. There she found an encouraging and inspiring group of friends. Carol and her group became the community for her writing from then on. Joan has published two books: a collection of short stories, Nothing Brave Here (Gallery of Readers Press 2013) and a collection of essays, Out of My Mind (The Vernon Street Press, 2022).
In 2015 Joan and Fran moved to the Lathrop Retirement Community in Northampton. There she found even more opportunities for connection. She brought her writing skills to Lathrop Residents’ publications, and became a volunteer photographer of people and events. She also found the time to walk the Fitzgerald Lake trails with their Australian Shepherd, Lucy, and to observe and photograph the natural world there.
A Celebration of Joan’s life was held in late December via Zoom and was attended by over 100 friends and former students. Joan was able to hear and respond to the outpouring of love and admiration from people in all parts of her life.
In addition to Fran, Joan is survived by her brother Robert Cenedella of Hancock, ME, and two half-brothers, Michael Cenedella of Portland, Oregon, and Peter Cenedella of South Orange, NJ. Her sister, Peni, died in 1985.
The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to The Literacy Project, James House community Center, 42 Gothic Street, Northampton MA 01060, or to savethechildren.org.