Tributes have been paid to a beloved Swindon teacher and pillar of the community who has died at the age of 94.
Jo Stehle helped to establish and run various local groups and charities, worked in three Swindon schools, and was involved in the Women’s Peace Camp that campaigned against the stationing of nuclear weapons at Greenham Common from 1981.
She has also been described as an “ahead-of-her-time environmentalist”.
Born Jo Audritt in Prospect Place on December 6, 1928, she attended Commonweal Grammar School after passing her Eleven-plus.
Her mother, a widow bringing up five young children, took in an evacuee during the Second World War, who became a lifelong family friend, so helping others was in Jo's blood.
After first working at the Co-operative Dairy Laboratories in Latton, Jo became a teacher at Mountford Manor Primary School and then a lab technician at Richard Jefferies and Oakfield Secondary Schools.
Unusually for the time, she continued her career despite being a wife and the mother of two sons.
It was in the community and voluntary sectors where Jo most made her mark, with a particular passion for the environment.
She pioneered recycling and other green initiatives in Swindon and was an early member of Friends of the Earth UK following its foundation in 1971.
In 1990, she helped to set up the Swindon branch of the mental health charity Mind and in later life also supported the Alzheimer’s Society’s Singing for the Brain project.
The Alzheimer's Society's regional manager Cat Medley said: “Jo was a joyful member of the group and always had a sparkle in her eyes.”
Still active into her eighties, Jo won a string of prizes swimming for Swindon Dolphins and enjoyed a range of outdoor pursuits, from being a member of the Swindon and North East Wiltshire Ramblers to youth hostelling and sailing.
Jo never lost her positive attitude to life, even when her memory began to fail. She died on May 21.
Her granddaughter Jessica Harding, who lives in Wroughton, said: “She was someone who really cared for people.
“Along with my late grandfather Ted Stehle, who always supported her community work, she always wanted the best for other people, and her enthusiasm was infectious, inspiring others to do their bit for a better future.
“She wanted to make our planet a better place.”
A celebration of Jo's life for family and close friends will be held on Monday, June 26.
For more information, email jess.harding@protonmail.com
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