Joan Loretta Dunbar

Joan born in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 17, she cashed in a set of fine silver she’d put on layaway at Marshall Field’s for her trousseau, and went to Jake’s Flying School at Palwaukee Airport to take lessons in the Piper Cub. She earned a beauty operator’s license at her mother’s request, but then pursued her aviation dreams by joining Lake Central Airlines as a flight attendant on the Douglas DC-3. Through a mutual friend at the airline, Joan met Willard P. (“Bill”) Dunbar Jr., a decorated Korean war jet fighter pilot and Indiana Air National Guard officer, and they married on March 15, 1961. The couple had three children, Willard III (b. 1962, d. 2016), Valerie (b. 1963), and Bryant (b. 1969), and lived in Northbrook, IL throughout Bill’s career as a captain with American Airlines.

Endlessly fascinated with spiritual studies, visual design, exotic plants, animals, and machines, Joan was a voracious lifelong learner. Her interests were wide-ranging and deep; once she identified a new passion, she researched it exhaustively and immersed herself in books and classes, often scouring Chicago and other cities for resources in the days long before the internet. She formed many intense and long-lasting friendships with people she met along the way. She didn’t just learn things – she mastered them, and then taught others. She loved Christmas, baking treats and cooking gourmet holiday meals each year, and lighting up the stylish Northbrook house with multiple trees laden with hundreds of ornaments – some themed with her large collection of antique and hand-blown glass, others with popcorn strands and ornaments crafted by her and the children.

A sampling of her many interests included: flying, Formula Ford auto racing (licensed driver), Excalibur motorcar and AMG Hummer ownership; American Saddlebred horses (riding and driving under harness, including at the word championships); tropical fish breeding; African violet hybridizing; metaphysics/religion/spiritual studies, out of body/near-death experiences, re-incarnation, ESP, meditation, dream interpretation, hospice work (trained practitioner, volunteer and teacher), Religious Science (practitioner, teacher), remote viewing, Ericksonian hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming (Master Practitioner), cooking, pastry/cake decorating, candy making, cocktail mixology, tropical fish breeding, Egyptology, Eastern religions, Ukrainian Easter Egg decorating, stained glassmaking, glass fusing, needlepoint/embroidery, fiber art (crochet/lace-making/tassel-making/macramé), paper art (origami, paper flowers), Native American pottery, jewelry and motifs, calligraphy and typography, real estate (Illinois licensed agent), antiques/estate sales, digital arts (digital photography and editing, web page design and management, html, Javascript). She and Bill became avid ballroom dancers throughout the 1990s.

She was the only woman ever to chauffeur Chicago Richard J. Daley. The city wanted to borrow her Excalibur for a ticker-tape parade featuring him and the Skylab I astronauts. She agreed, on the condition that she be allowed to drive. They balked, but she prevailed.

She looked after feral cats and aspirant people, always prepared with reams of useful information, hard-to-find books (to borrow, but not to keep, and woe betide you if you wrinkled the pages), a delicious, from-scratch meal, a well-mixed cocktail, a solid referral, an encouraging email, an uplifting spiritual mind treatment, and (sometimes whether you liked it or not) an ice bucket full of straight talk. She encouraged things to grow – sometimes forced them. She would liberate a leaf or two from a plant she liked and in a few months she’d turn into a lush, thriving pot of greenery and bloom. She survived quadruple bypass surgery in 2006, and afterward transformed her diet and fitness regimens with the same intensity she brought to all of her passions.

Her sparkle riveted attention – a wicked, Grinchly twinkle lit up her green eyes. Though she couldn’t really carry a tune, her laughter was operatic in its range. And though she claimed to be shy, her voice and demeanor easily commanded men twice her size.

Joan was fond of saying, “I have simple taste – I only like the best.” She loved quality and abundance and speed and progress. She had no patience whatsoever for small talk or small thinking.

Our ineffable, inexplicable, and irreplaceable Joan passed away peacefully on September 5, with her beloved husband Bill at her side. She was preceded in death by her son Bill III, and is survived by her son Bryant (Liz Armis) Dunbar, daughter Valerie Dunbar Jones, and grandsons Parker Jones and Corey (Katelyn) and great-grandson Barrett Jones.

Due to Covid 19, no gathering is currently planned.  The family encourages donations to ALS research in her memory. A celebration of Joan’s life will take place at a later date.