Joseph Schreuder
Joseph Anthony Schreuder
Longtime Napa resident, Joseph Anthony Schreuder, passed away Thursday at the age of 73 following a year-long battle with the neuromuscular disease ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Joe was best known as a science teacher, opera lover, coach and environmental activist.
Joe was born in Berkeley in 1928 to Joseph and Ruth Berlock. He attended elementary schools in Berkeley, Oakland and Lafayette, and graduated from Acalanes High School. He attended college at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, Long Island, N.Y., from which he graduated in 1950 as a licensed marine engineer. While in high school and college, Joe excelled in track and field, specializing in high hurdles and pole vault. Following college, he settled in San Francisco and married Mary Lou Boeshore in 1951.
He worked for Link Belt, Inc., and later at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard as a submarine design engineer. At the outbreak of the Korean War, Joe was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. He and Mary Lou spent two years in Tokyo, Japan, where he supervised the maintenance and repair of naval ships throughout Japan. In 1955, Joe and Mary Lou returned to San Francisco where he attended San Francisco State University, earning a teaching credential. The young couple moved to Napa in 1957, where he took a position as a math and science teacher at Napa High School.
In addition to teaching, Joe was very active in coaching and officiating track and field events and assisting the drama and music departments with production sound, lighting and special effects.
Joe served as the president of the Napa Valley Symphony Association and co-organized the Mondavi Summer Concert series in 1969, serving as staging technical manager. Joe coached several championship soccer teams prior to his retirement from teaching in 1988. In retirement, he devoted himself to environmental causes in the valley, resisting hillside construction and over-development of natural resources. He was a board member of the United Napa Valley Association and the Sierra Club.
Joe is survived by his wife of 51 years, Mary Lou Schreuder; an aunt, Illona Bellak of San Rafael; sisters, Lora Boswell of Santa Cruz and Nira Dean of Nevada City; daughters, Heidi Schreuder-Gibson of Holliston, Mass., and Wendy Mello of Napa; son Glenn Schreuder, also of Napa; and seven grandchildren.
Friends are invited to attend a memorial service honoring Joe's life, hosted by the Napa High School Science Department at the Napa High School Little Theater, 2475 Jefferson St., Napa, on Sunday, April 28, at 1 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Forbes-Norris MDA/ALS Research Center, 2324 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA 94115; to Kaiser Hospice Department, 975 Sereno Drive, Vallejo, CA 94589; or to the Napa Valley Symphony Association, 2407 California Blvd., Napa, CA 94559, in the name of Joseph A. Schreuder.
Arrangements are under the direction of Richard Pierce Funeral Service, 1660 Silverado Trail, Napa.