JoAnn Faist October 6, 1933 - October 3, 2013

Long-time La Cañada resident JoAnn Faist, passed away October 3rd, just a few days shy of her 80th birthday.

The only child of Adelbert Buie Nickerson and Hazel Dorothea Nickerson, JoAnn was born in San Bernardino in 1933. She attended elementary school in Jacumba, California and graduated in 1951 from Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School. She attended college at the University of Redlands, PCC and UC Berkeley where she majored in math.

JoAnn worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1955 to 1966. It was at JPL where she met her future husband, Gus Faist, a computer systems analyst. They were married in 1964 and moved to La Cañada the following year. Both of their daughters attended schools in La Cañada: Oak Grove Elementary, Foothill Intermediate and LCHS. JoAnn was a tireless volunteer in the PTA where she organized paper drives, fundraising events, and was the last PTA president of Oak Grove before it closed in 1979. She was dedicated to her daughters’ academics, and their involvement in Girl Scouts, Job’s Daughters, Marching Band/Tall Flags/Banners, Les Fleurettes Debutantes, Madrigal Singers and Musical Theater.

JoAnn began working as the Computer Resource Center Manager at La Cañada High School in 1983. In 1991, she completed the Vocational Education Instructor Program and received her Designated Subjects Teaching Credential. JoAnn taught computer literacy, business skills and BASIC programming and managed the computer lab at LCHS until she retired in 1999. She was also a member of the La Cañada Thursday Club and the Descanso Gardens Guild.

JoAnn is survived by her husband, Gustavo Alfredo Faist, Jr; daughter, Jennifer Faist Hill and son-in-law, Craig Hill, of La Cañada-Flintridge; and daughter, Christina Faist-Glass and son-in-law, Daniel Glass, of New York, NY.

A celebration of JoAnn’s life will be held November 9th. For details, please contact Jennifer Faist Hill: jennifer.faist@artcenter.edu. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association in her memory, and in honor of her surviving husband Gus Faist.