Jeannette Marie “Jan” Samples, who with patience and understanding encouraged her young students at Maumee Valley Country Day School, died Thursday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. She was 82.

She had cancer, her daughter Julie Samples said. 

Mrs. Samples retired in 2003 from Maumee Valley, where she’d taught since 1967, except for a break in the 1970s, when her daughters were born.

She knew the importance of early childhood education and “put that knowledge into practice for the benefit of her students’ later years,” Ms. Samples said.

Mrs. Samples, who was director of Maumee Valley’s preschool for a time, helped develop a program for students who were old enough for first grade, but needed more time before taking that step. Classes were made up of five students at most.

“She was a wonderful mentor, had good vision,” said Sara Roberts, whom Mrs. Samples hired in 1984 to start a program for 3-year-olds.

“The thing I remember most about Jan, when we taught, we had the most wonderful time,” Mrs. Roberts said. “She was patient and understood early childhood and what was developmentally appropriate for them. She enjoyed that age group. She was a natural teacher and was always willing to learn new things and was always a team player. The next year was never like the previous year. Always different. Always creative.”

And because of the students and their parents and her colleagues, Mrs. Samples returned year after year.

“All the teamwork and collaboration kept her energized,” daughter Liz Ury said.

Mrs. Samples later taught third and fourth grade at Maumee Valley. In 1997, she told The Blade of a unit on Japan that culminated in a Japanese meal that students helped prepare.

“Children learn so much about a country from the fun of preparing the food,” Mrs. Samples said then. Students had no problem using knives to cut vegetables for the meal.

“Let them know you trust them to use these things correctly and they rise to the occasion,” she said.

As the recipient in 2001 of Maumee Valley’s Dream Odyssey award, she went to Greece. She received an outstanding teacher award from the school in 2002.

She and her husband, Gary Samples, enjoyed travel adventures, from visiting every state to trips through 50 countries on several continents and the Galapagos Islands.

“One thing that made my parents such good partners. My dad had big ideas and big dreams, and my mom could help organize everything,” Ms. Samples said. “They worked really well together.”

Her husband, a Toledo high school social studies teacher, served on Perrysburg City Council from 1976-95 and from 1998-2001 and was known for his support of recycling and making the city safe for bicyclists.

She handled details during his campaigns, poring over voter registration lists to focus on likely supporters. When he was in office, she typed the meeting minutes of his council committees.

“She really thought my dad was doing good for Perrysburg,” Ms. Ury said. “She believed in his good ideas.”

She and her husband participated in the offerings of Way Public Library, and she volunteered at the food bank in Perrysburg. 

Even in her illness, she offered compliments and support to those friends who visited, said Kathy Helmick, a friend of 45 years.

“She was always kind, as much difficulty as she was going through,” Mrs. Helmick said.

She was born Sept. 15, 1939, in Columbus, Neb., to Helen and Arthur Caress. Her father was an electrical engineer, and his work took the family to Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Rochester, N.Y.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace College. She received a master’s degree in education from Bowling Green State University, where she and her husband met. She began her career in the Elyria and North Ridgeville, Ohio, schools.

“There were a lot of educators in the family, and it was the path she chose, and it was definitely a calling,” Ms. Samples said.

She and her husband married on June 11, 1966. He died Jan. 10, 2021.

Surviving are her daughters Elizabeth Ury and Julie Samples; brother, Edward Caress, and a granddaughter.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 24 at Perrysburg First United Methodist Church, where she had been an active member. Arrangements are by Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg.

The family suggests tributes to Way Public Library, Perrysburg; First Church in Perrysburg, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio.

First Published August 31, 2022, 4:00 a.m.