Joan M. Sheridan

Waltham – "School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside."

One sentence captures the frame of reference that Joan Sheridan took to work with her every day. For more than thirty years she handed over her very best effort to help kids in Waltham get a leg up on life.

Her teaching career began with a short stint in Boston before coming to Waltham in 1970 where she landed at Central Junior High School as a history instructor. Joan later became the school's assistant principal before being named the Director of Social Studies for the entire Waltham school system in 1983, a position she held before retiring in 2000.

Joan could best be described as warm, loving, kind and generous . . . and stern, determined, courageous and honest . . . all things we remember from our best teachers . . . and she was one of those.

She graduated from Waltham High in 1950 and from Boston State College in 1969 where she earned her bachelor's degree in education. After that she was awarded a master's degree in history from Northeastern University in 1972. Always a lifelong learner, she later completed a certificate in education administration from Boston College.

Joan died at her Waltham home on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 after a fairly brief but intense battle with cancer. She met the end the same way she lived her life . . . with courage, grace, dignity and faith.

After she retired from the school department she worked just as hard for the Waltham Historical Society, a group founded in 1913, and where she was a past president. She was a co-founder and member of the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation and a longtime member of the Friends of the Waltham Public Library. Joan also belonged to the Waltham Rotary Club where she served as president in 2000/01.

She leaves her cousins, Patricia Bentley and her husband, John, of Billerica and Jane Sheridan of Sarasota, Florida and her dear friends, Stephen McCabe and Mark Morley of Somerville.

Family and friends will honor and remember Joan's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham, on Sunday, May 1st from 3 to 6 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. on Monday morning before leaving in procession to Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Church, 880 Trapelo Road, Waltham, where her Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to the Waltham Historical Society, 190 Moody Street, Waltham, MA 02453.