Joan Pritchard will be missed

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel/Marietta A.M. Sunday edition has lost a trusted, respected and expert on Marietta history with the passing of Joan Pritchard.

Pritchard, 87, died Sunday at her home.

She had told the newspaper that she hadn't been feeling well enough to submit her column for publication for the preceding two weeks, which drew several telephone calls to my office asking why the column hadn't appeared.

Over the decades Pritchard wrote the weekly column we learned of her family, her husband's terms in Congress, her daughter's battle with life-altering disease, her brother's military career, her love for Marietta, her devotion to the revitalization of the armory, her sharing her knowledge by being a guide on the Marietta Trolley, her father's high school coaching career, her unending research into the history of Marietta High School sports, academic, clubs, band and teachers and to her dedication to Marietta College.

There was hardly an organization in and/or around Marietta that hadn't been touched by Pritchard's column and her involvement in her community.

Her death is a tremendous loss for the community and a tremendous blow to the retelling of Marietta history.

Memorial services for Pritchard will be 11 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 501 Fourth St., in Marietta. Memorial donations in her name may be made to the Marietta Historical Society, P.O. Box 103, or Marietta College, 215 Fifth St., Marietta, OH 45750.