Jean Giltz Whaley

In loving and happy recall; Jean Wood Giltz Whaley, former writer and honored Stark County teacher has died at age 94. The mother of four children; grandmother to 15, great-grandmother to 8 and true friend to many led a wonderful, active life; learning, educating, traveling, and playing golf until her stroke in 2002. She was born November 28, 1911, the first child of three, daughter to Frances Hoosic Wood and Alvin Wood in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a young girl the family moved to Pittsburgh, Pa. and at the age of sixteen, Jean went to work for the Surety Insurance Company and began attending the University of Pittsburgh. In 1936 she married Chester Stoner Giltz and moved to Massillon to start a family and be a lawyer's wife. While raising her brood, Jean began writing short stories and plays. After selling numerous works, she engaged a New York literary agent and her writings appeared in Family Circle, Redbook and other publications with translations in over seven languages. Most of the stories were drawn from personal experiences dealing with the antics of her children and their friends. When the eldest of her three boys was seventeen and entering Duke University and her little girl was two, Jean pursued her dream of completing her college degree and enrolled in the College of Wooster. Upon graduation in 1962, Jean began teaching in a Canton High School and within a couple of years she had a master in Education. For almost twenty years, she taught English at Glenwood High and later Glen Oak. Many of her former students continue to stay in touch, with stories of how their superior English skills prepared them for successful careers or to share a grammatical failing of a peer. She hated not teaching and to quote Jean I have never been so totally enthralled, so totally involved in the world around me - the young people around me. I love being reminded of a young world, peopled with vigorous, beautiful, aspiring beings. Her love of teaching was only surpassed by the love for her family, Chester Giltz and his wife Carol of Lyndhurst, Ohio; Harry Giltz II and his wife Sandy of Canton, Ohio; Danridge Giltz and his wife Cecil of Kent, Ohio and Francey Wells and her husband Randy of Fuquay Varina, North Carolina; and a step-daughter Margie McCarty and her husband Glenn of Winchester, Tennessee. She is survived by her husband of thirty four years, Robert of the Ohio Veterans Home, Sandusky, Ohio. Jean was preceded in death by an infant son Christopher and her husband of thirty-three years, Chester Stoner Giltz. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 9:30 A.M. at the Paquelet Funeral home with Pastor Langley Collins of Faith Lutheran Church officiating. Interment immediately following the service at the Massillon Cemetery. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Jean Giltz Whaley Writing Award, c/o Plain Local Schools, 901 - 44th Street N.W., Canton, Ohio 44709. Paquelet Massillon (330)833-3222 A Golden Rule Funeral Home www.paquelet.com