JOAN COCHRAN TERRELL

1927-2016

Joan Cochran Terrell, widow of Dailey Burnham Terrell, daughter of Alice Elizabeth Hanchett and Nehemiah Cochran, died on December 26, 2016, at her home in Houston, Texas. A 1948 alumna of the Rice Institute, she went on to endow the Alice Hanchett Memorial Family-Endowed Scholarship at Rice, which provides support for gifted students at the Shepherd School of Music. During her fortyyear career at St. Joseph’s Hospital, she was Director of St. Joseph’s School of Medical Technology and Director of Quality Control in St. Joseph’s Laboratory. Her primary area of expertise was hematology. Over the years, she mentored hundreds of medical technologists, exhorting her students to “always remember the patient.” She received her master’s degree in education from the University of Michigan in 1985. Through their memberships in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and the Live Oak Friends Meeting, their work with the Houston Food Bank and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and most especially in the generous friendship they extended to everyone they met, Joan and her late husband Burnham Terrell touched countless lives. She was a mother, mentor, and source of counsel to many women, an independent leader who remained a staunch supporter of both the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party. She is survived by her children Cynthia Bamford; Elizabeth Glant; Carl, Clyde, and William Kessel; Thomas McNeely; Eva and Geoff Terrell; and Christopher Todd; and by her grandchildren Julia Bamford; Andrew, Christine, Gregory, and Laura Kessel; Alice McGrath; Kirill Shubin and Helena Shubina; Betsy Singsaas; and Jenny Straus. A vigil will be held at 5 pm Monday, January 9th and a funeral mass at 10 am Tuesday, January 10th, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 1505 Kane St, Houston, TX 77007, with a reception starting at noon, January 10th, at Bradshaw Carter Funeral Home, 1734 W. Alabama, Houston, TX 77098. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to organizations supporting peace, equality, and social justice.