Joan Wilkinson, spouse of past RI president, dies
By Ryan Hyland
Rotary International News -- 24 March 2010
Joan and Past RI President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson.
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Joan Wilkinson, wife of Rotary Foundation Trustee and 2007-08 RI President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson, died on 22 March. She was 78.
Joan, of Trenton, Ontario, Canada, was a founding member of the Inner Wheel Club of Trenton and served in all of its offices, including president. She was an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Trenton.
"Joan was an outstanding first lady. She was deeply devoted to Wilf, her family, and to Rotary," says Foundation Trustee Vice Chair John F. Germ, who served as aide to the president in 2007-08. "I don't think she ever met a stranger, because she considered everyone she came across as a friend. She went out of her way to meet people and make them feel at home."
After graduating high school, where she met her husband, Joan worked in the statistician's office of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. During her youth, she was active in the Girl Guides of Canada.
Joan was a fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Canadian Cancer Society, and Hastings Manor senior citizens home. She was also a provincial board of inquiry member and was active in the Trenton Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and the Trenton Memorial Library. She worked with local children in need and became the first chair of the Dufferin Street Preschool.
Visitation will take place 25-26 March at Rushnell Funeral Centre, 60 Division St., Trenton. Funeral services will be held on 27 March at St. Peter's Catholic Church, Dundas St. W. and Queen St., Trenton.
Joan is survived by her husband and their sons, Stephen, Bill, Peter, and John. In lieu of flowers, Wilf Wilkinson asks that contributions be made to The Rotary Foundation in his wife's memory.