Genoa art teacher was church organist

1/17/2007

GENOA - Adelaide M. Dunn, 88, a painter who in the mid 1950s helped pioneer art education in the Genoa Area Local Schools, died Monday in Genoa Retirement Village, where she had been since March.

She had Alzheimer's disease and suffered mini-strokes, daughter Deanna Dunn said. She retired in 1978 as Genoa Area High School's art teacher.

She was teaching more than 800 children a week when she began 23 years earlier. Three afternoons a week, she taught arts and crafts in the high school. Classes were in the cafeteria, and all supplies, even water, had to be hauled in and carried away. She then taught elementary students in 20-minute segments and saw each child once a week.

Much of her career, though, was as high school art teacher.

"She like to teach people to do things. She had the joy of creativity," daughter Deanna said.

Daughter Lynda Dunn added: "She was on a mission to get others to appreciate the art around them."

She also inspired her daughters, all of whom are visual artists or musicians - or both.

"She was high-spirited and fun to be around, and I loved the creative side," said Deanna, a photographer.

Mrs. Dunn's painted four murals depicting the seasons at the Riverview Nursing Home in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and her drawing of Genoa's town hall was used on village stationery.

Mrs. Dunn had been a music major at Ohio University. She married, had a family, and started painting portraits. Classes at the Toledo Museum of Art and college coursework at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University followed.

She was a founder of the 42 Culture Club in Genoa.

She and her husband, Claire "Iker" Dunn, married June 17, 1939. Mr. Dunn, who was a University of Toledo football coach and Waite High School teacher and coach, died April 1, 1996.

Mrs. Dunn was a former organist at St. Paul Trinity United Methodist Church, where she also taught Sunday school.

Surviving are her daughters, Lynda Dunn, Loretta "Lori" Moore, Darla Spector, and Deanna Dunn; brothers, Daniel and Robert Stright; sister, Elsie Brooks; seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

The body will be in the Robinson-Walker Funeral Home, Genoa, after 2 p.m. today. Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in St. Paul Trinity United Methodist Church, Genoa. The family suggests tributes to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio or New Marshfield United Methodist Church, New Marshfield, Ohio.