Wilson, Jean - FUHS 1941

Jean E. (Holbrook) Wilson, born August 28, 1923 in Tulare, CA to Hazel Georgia (Haas) and William Carlton Holbrook, passed away just short of her 96 birthday on August 3, 2019 at her home in Fullerton. She was a lineal descendent of Edward Fuller and Governor William Bradford of Plymouth, MA. Raised as a young child on a fruit ranch owned by William’s father in Visalia, she moved to Glendale and then to Fullerton in 1930 and settled at 223 N. Yale Street. Her father was tragically killed in an automobile accident in Los Angeles in 1935 and Jean and her two sisters were raised by their mother, who never remarried. She graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1941. While at the high school she created cutting-edge pottery taught by the noted California ceramicist, Glen Lukens, who helped pave the way for ceramics today as an award winning ceramicist and teacher. She graduated from UCLA in 1945. She married Leland E. Oliver in 1943 and gave birth to two children, Mark and Lynne, and divorced in 1963. She raised her children as a single mother while teaching first and second grades in the Fullerton School District.

At a time in the 1960’s and 70’s when California schools were underfunded and overcrowded, she and another primary grade teacher, Jean Brown, initiated one of California’s first experiments in team-teaching (about 40 students), where small groups of children received focused attention on core curriculum while the other teacher led the bulk of the students in other non-scholarly activities. The program was a success and spread throughout the California state school system. She married the love of her life, Dale E. Wilson, in 1971 in Fullerton and retired from teaching in 1977. In addition to happy pastimes of tennis and sailing their boat to the Southern California islands on an almost constant basis, they sailed the South Pacific and Mediterranean until his untimely death in 1989. She and her sister, Wynelle Holbrook, also of Fullerton, later traveled together in Southeast Asia, Central America and Europe. A lifelong teacher by habit, and an intellectual, she used her insatiable curiosity

to introduce her family and many friends to the wonders of the world around them. She was involved in many causes close to her heart, especially the AAUW, Friends of the Fullerton Library, the Fullerton Arboretum and the PEO.

She is survived by her son, Mark Oliver, daughter Lynne Prechel, her step-son Dale Wilson, Jr., four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her sisters, Wynelle and Marian preceded her in death. No service is planned. A contribution in her name to the Friends of the Fullerton Library would be appreciated.

Orange County Register September 15, 2019