JOAN LENORE GROSS (VERBURG)
Born July 29, 1929 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Edythe Haddock and Cornelius Verburg, Joan was graduated from Westfield N.J. High School in 1947 and Ursinus College, Pennsylvania in 1951. While attending summer school in Saltillo, Mexico in 1949, she met her future husband, Howard Rabun Gross, of Marysville, Washington. They were married in Marysville in 1952. The following year, they moved to Arlington Virginia, where they were employed by the National Security Agency.
After her husband joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1958, Joan accompanied him to diplomatic posts in Europe and Latin America and studied German and Serbo-Croatian at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, as well as Spanish, Italian, and French privately. She was an adjunct professor of English at the Florida State University branch in the former Panama Canal Zone and a volunteer tutor of English as a second language at Everett Community College.
She is survived by three children, Howard Wade Gross (Daryl), Clay Putnam Monroe (Ramona) and Jordan Dina Gross, and seven grandsons, Garrett and Troy Gross, Alexander and Harold Monroe, and Mathias, Micah, and Ezra Kellman Gross.
At her request there will be no services.
Condolence(1)-
Mike Ouchida says
February 22, 2024 at 6:18 pmJoan was a wonderful person we grew very close to. After her husband passed she was looking for an English Setter for companionship. We had a young female setter named Layla we removed to Joan. Joan instantly became family. She loved that dog and Layla gave her years of companionship. We will miss Joan very much.