JoAnn Huber, a teacher who brought fluency in French language and culture – and enthusiasm — to her junior high and high school students, died Monday at home in Wood County’s Middleton Township. She was 84.

Alzheimer’s disease and congestive heart failure were among her health problems, her husband, Raymond Huber, said. She suffered a stroke 2½ years ago.

Mrs. Huber — Madame Huber to her students — retired from the Ottawa Hills schools in the late 1990s, where she taught French for 18 years.

“She was known as a fabulous teacher,” said Alice Lora, a retired Ottawa Hills High School colleague who taught English and journalism.

Whether out shopping or dining, longtime friend Joan Rigal recalled, “some student would come up to her and say, ‘Oh, Madame Huber’ —  she was very fond of her students and teaching — and she started to speak French.”

Her enthusiasm shone through, “and the kids picked up on it,” said Mr. Huber, who was Wood County engineer for 12 years, through 2016. “She was very good at what she did and engaged the students to participate fully.”

Shea McInerney, a 1996 Ottawa Hills High graduate, was in Mrs. Huber’s French class for eighth, 10th, and 12th grades.

“She was definitely the teacher who taught me French,” said Ms. McInerney, a former teacher who now is a nurse in Santa Fe.

“She ran a very active classroom. If we were practicing conjugations of a French verb, she would have each side of the classroom run up to board as fast as they could and fill in their conjugation. She had us create a lot of skits [and] write a lot of dialogues. She showed us a lot of interesting television and film material in French.”

But the activity had focus and purpose. If learning to speak about the weather, workbook and video elements followed that theme.

“You couldn’t zone out because what was happening was interesting and you were always participating,” Ms. McInerney said.

Mrs. Huber made eight trips to France with groups of Ottawa Hills students.

“It was such a neat opportunity to speak French in France with French people,” said Ms. McInerney, who made the trip as a 10th grader. Between her junior and senior years, Ms. McInerney was an exchange student with a French-speaking family in Belgium.

“I felt very prepared,” Ms. McInerney said.

Mrs. Lora traveled four times to France with Mrs. Huber — twice with student groups. An early assignment for the students’ stop in Nice, in southeast France, was to order lunch in French.

“By the time they got to Paris, they felt very comfortable,” Mrs. Lora said. The group dined in a high-caliber Paris restaurant. On the way out, a distinguished-looking gentleman motioned Mrs. Huber over and said, “‘I have never seen a better-behaved group of students,’” Mrs. Lora recalled. 

She was honored as a teacher who made a difference by the Lucas County Board of Education, as it was then known. In 1985, she was among 20 high school language teachers selected for a monthlong seminar at Purdue University, financed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Mrs. Huber began her career teaching English and French in the former Adams Township school system, at McTigue Junior High School and then Rogers High School.

After retiring from Ottawa Hills, she worked for five years, until the early 2000s, at Bowling Green State University, where she evaluated student teachers and had duties in the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

She was born July 22, 1939, to Alice and Jack Clinger and grew up in South Toledo. A 1957 graduate of Libbey High School, she was a member of literary and study group and took part in plays.

“She partook of everything,” said Ellie McCreery, who met her on the first day of orientation. “We became best friends immediately, and we were still best friends on the day she died. We were very different from one another, and we complemented one another.

“JoAnn threw herself into everything she did. She was merry and sincere and she was curious,” she said.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University, where she majored in French. She continued her studies at the University of Caen in France and received a master’s degree from the University of Toledo.

Surviving are her husband, Raymond Huber, whom she married June 17, 1961; daughter, Heather Ann Huber, and son, Justin Heath Huber.

Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Tuesday at Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg. Funeral services will be private.

The family suggests tributes to the Alzheimer’s Association.

First Published September 16, 2023, 4:00 a.m.