Date of Birth:
Tuesday, January 29, 1935
Date of Death:
Thursday, April 2, 2026
Age:
91 years old

Joan Mary Howland

Joan Mary Howland (Huber) died on Thursday April 2, 2026, at home in Rochester, MN. She died on Holy Thursday, a day which epitomizes humility, your role in community, and the importance of serving others.

Joan was known as Joannie by her family from Iowa and those who worked with her at the Mayo Clinic and as Jo by her husband and many other communities she belonged to.

Her mother, Susan Huber (Demuth), and her father, William Huber, travelled from Calmar, Iowa to La Crosse, Wisconsin so that Joan could be born in a hospital on January 29, 1935.

She grew-up on a farm near Calmar. She often would talk about the hard work growing up on the farm, especially as her father died when she was five. She would relate that she did not mind milking cows by hand. She did not like collecting eggs from the chickens as she said they could be mean, but she would quickly add that she understood them as they were only trying to protect their future offspring.

She was born during the Great Depression, and she would recall that Calmar was a rail hub and many men were riding the rails looking for work. She recalled as a little girl that men would come to their house looking for work and how her mom would usually give them a slice of bread with butter, even though they had little to give. It was a formative experience as Joan was always empathetic to those less fortunate than herself.

Joannie attended St. Aloysius Catholic Grade School in Calmar.

Joannie went to the Calmar High School, where she was active in various activities at school including cheerleading and basketball. She showed an interest in the well-being of their community. She was active in school politics, serving as Vice-President of her 1954 graduating class.

After she graduated from high school, Joannie moved to Rochester, Minnesota and soon took a job with the Mayo Clinic.

She met her future husband, Donald (Don) Howland in December 1957. They happened to be living in the same apartment building across from each other. Jo and her roommate had gone out and purchased a Christmas tree. When they returned with the tree, they leaned the tree on Don’s apartment door as they were trying to get their apartment door open. Don for some reason was on his way out at the time and opened the door and the Christmas tree fell on him.

Jo and Don were married July 27, 1959, at St. John’s Catholic Church in Rochester, MN.

They had two sons. Jay was born May 10, 1960, and preceded her in death in 1973 from undetermined causes during a swimming race. Todd was born April 27, 1961. He is a former senior official at the United Nations and currently a Professor of Law at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Joannie/Jo lived her whole adult life in Rochester except for spending most of 1958 living in San Francisco and spending winters with many of their friends in Sun City West, AZ from 1998 to 2020.

While she took some time off from work to raise her children, she retired from the Mayo Clinic in 1998. The work she found most rewarding was interacting with patients and family of patients with difficult and terminal diagnosis. Having suffered an untimely death of her son, she was well-placed to help parents who were trying to cope with their child’s terminal or challenging diagnosis.

Jo/Joannie was easy to laugh and her laugh was infectious. She enjoyed being social and spent hours and hours each year investing in keeping in touch with her friends and family.

Jo was a very active volunteer. Among many activities that benefited her community, she volunteered at the Dorthy Day House in Rochester that provides shelter for the homeless or unhoused. In her update for her 50^th class reunion, she mentioned cooking for the homeless and working with less fortunate families getting settled in Rochester via the Inter Faith Hospitality Network as particularly rewarding. She would relate stories of the people she met and the struggles they had to her children, instilling an understanding of the challenges and injustices suffered by others.

In Arizona, in addition to the golfing and good times with her friends, she volunteered weekly at a soup kitchen and food bank of St. Vincent De Paul mainly serving migrants needing a bit of support.

As she actually interacted with people less fortunate than her since she was a little girl, she saw everyone first as a human being. She could get annoyed with people and politicians who dehumanized others and looked down at people in difficult circumstances and felt society – including the government – should help people find and get back on their feet.

She had a knack for making people – no matter their origin, social/economic status, or politics – feel comfortable. Joannie/Jo was young at heart, so it was difficult for her to be narrow of mind. She almost always invited people over to her house for holidays and meals when she felt they need a bit of support and company. She happily expanded the traditional definition of family.

The family would like to thank Alliyah Williams, Haley Best, and Kerri Brown for their contributions to Jo/Joanie’s well-being during the last phase of her life.

The funeral services will be held at    11 a.m. on Friday, April 17, in the River Park Chapel at Macken Funeral Home with Rev. James Kunz officiating. Preceding the service, a visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 11 a.m. A lunch will follow the service.

A livestream of the service will be available at https://mackenfuneralhome.com/.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Dorothy Day house. https://www.dorothydayrocmn.org/donations/

“We must talk about poverty because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.” Dorothy Day