Jo NelsoN

1945-2015

Aida Josephine “Jo” Guery Nelson passed away Wednesday, April 22, 2015.

Born in 1945 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jo was reared and educated in a Spanish speaking household and school until the age of 10, whereupon she moved to the continental United States. Jo quickly learned English and excelled academically. She graduated from The University of Houston, Magna Cum Laude, in 1972, and from The University of Houston Bates School of Law, with honors, in 1975. As an undergraduate she held the office of Women’s Advocate on campus and was instrumental in the creation of the University’s first on site day care facility. Later, as a law student, she was was an associate editor on the school’s prestigious Houston Law Review.

Jo continued her activism on behalf of women and children throughout her years of private legal practice. She was the President and founding member of the Association of Women Attorneys, the first group of its kind in Harris County, but reserved her greatest professional pride for her work with at risk youths. In 1981 Mayor Kathy Whittier appointed her to the Houston Municipal Court bench, on which she continued to serve for 28 years, under five different mayors.

Jo was a tenacious and intellectually energetic woman whose busy professional life did not preclude a passionate enjoyment of travel and the arts. She traveled to over 50 countries on all five continents and was an avid hiker and skier. Though a frequent Opera goer and aficionado of all fine arts, it was dance, and in particular, ballet that most captured her imagination, both as a spectator and dancer herself.

Jo is survived by her husband, Thomas L. Schubert, who she called the great love of her life, three sons, David, Aaron, and Zachary Nelson, and two stepchildren, Thomas and Jessica Schubert.

She was a woman of wit, will, generosity and friendship, a woman’s woman.

Internment will take place in a private ceremony. Visitation is open to the public, 5-7 PM, Friday, April 24th at Levy’s Funeral Home, 4525 Bissonet, A public memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 2nd, at 10:30 AM.