Flags at the St. Albert Public School district office flew at half-mast this week to honour the life of long-time teacher, trustee and historian Joan Trettler.
Sarah Joan Trettler (née Huston) died Jan. 4 after a bout with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, her husband Ron Trettler said. She was 75.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare and fatal degenerative brain disorder that affects about one in a million people year-wide, reports the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. A variant of it can be acquired by eating cows infected with the so-called “mad-cow” disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
“It’s a big hole in my heart,” Ron said of her passing.
“Joan was my rock. She was an inspiration.”
Trettler was a teacher, administrator, trustee and board chair with St. Albert Public for some 44 years and an active volunteer right up until last year, said current board chair and friend Glenys Edwards.
“Our current board of trustees and really our entire district is really grateful for Joan’s huge contributions to public education,” she said.
“St. Albert has lost an amazing educator, trustee and human being.”
Teacher, historian, hedgehog lover
Born in Holywood, Northern Ireland, Trettler immigrated to Canada in 1954 along with her parents and siblings. Growing up in Grimshaw, Alberta, she got her education degree at the University of Alberta and started as a teacher with the St. Albert Protestant (now Public) board around 1969.Ron said he met Trettler at a New Year’s Eve party about 45 years ago.
“It was just magical,” he said, and they hit it off immediately.
Ron said the two of them initially lived in Edmonton, but soon moved to St. Albert due to Trettler’s many school-related activities. St. Albert didn’t even have a Safeway back then, he recalled. They decided not to have children, but spent many years criss-crossing the globe to visit the Nazca Lines, the Galapagos Islands, and other exotic locations. At the suggestion of her friends, Trettler also started to collect hedgehogs, and eventually amassed several hundred bits of hedgehog-related paraphernalia.
Trettler taught at and served as vice-principal at Paul Kane, Ronald Harvey, Elmer S. Gish and other Protestant schools, and served several terms on the Alberta Teachers’ Association executive, Edwards said. She suspects Trettler’s memories of Ireland’s school system inspired her to get involved in education politics.
“I think I remember her saying that a country is only as strong as its public education system.”
Trettler retired as a teacher in 1997 only to run for trustee the next year at the suggestion of then-trustee Lois Hole, who also funded her campaign, Ron said. Trettler won in a landslide and served 15 years with the board.
Trettler took her job seriously and was always well informed about any issue considered by the board, Edwards said. But she was also quick to laugh, and would often use her Irish humour to bring levity to even the heaviest of debates.
“She was known right across the province as a champion for public education,” Edwards said, and served two terms as president of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta.
Trettler also established and chaired the Historical Foundation for School District 6, which has organized an ongoing series of displays on the history of the St. Albert Protestant district. Trettler helped research and assemble each exhibit and attended the launch of all but the most recent one.
Trettler is survived by her husband Ron, brothers John and Timothy, sister-in-law Maia, cousins Dorothy and Sara, stepson Jeff, and great-niece Nora. A celebration of her life will be held later this year.
Ron asked that donations go toward the Joan Trettler Scholarship Fund in support of Paul Kane and Bellerose students. Call St. Albert Public district office at 780-460-3712 for details.
