Joan Crump dies

Joan Lee Crump, the wife of emeritus English professor Galbraith Crump and a longtime member of the College community, died on Monday, November 13, at the University of Virginia Hospital following a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was seventy-four.

The Crumps came to Kenyon in 1965 and lived for many years in "Kokosing," the stately home built by Bishop Gregory Thurston Bedell in 1864, on Kokosing Drive. They moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, after Gal Crump retired in 1990.

"Joan Crump did more than represent the spirit of the community for a generation in Gambier and many student generations at Kenyon," said David Lynn, professor of English and editor of the Kenyon Review . "She lived that spirit in its very best sense. Warm, funny, engaging, Joan welcomed students and faculty and local people to her remarkable home with a genuine and civilized hospitality that seems very rare today."

Born in Gloversville, New York, Joan was the daughter of the writer and Arctic explorer Herbert Patrick Lee, and Elise Souls of Gloversville. She worked briefly as a model for Filene's of Boston after graduating from Lasell Junior College in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1952. She married Galbraith Crump the same year. In Ohio, Joan worked as a teacher for Knox County Head Start.

During retirement, she took up quilting and became a prizewinning exhibiter in England and the United States, where a number of her quilts are in private collections.

She is survived by her husband; by four sons, Andrew, Patrick, Timothy, and Nicholas; and by nine grandchildren. A fifth son, Ian, died in 2003.

Funeral services were held on November 17 in Charlottesville.