Written Stuff

Memorial/Wake will be held on Saturday, May 10. Wake from 1 to whenever, with the tree planting at 3 and the tequila toast at 7?

Here's the Press Citizen Article Dede mentioned in the comments...

Alternative education pioneer, 'lady of letters' dies
Diana Paulina, 62, succumbs to cancer

By Rob Daniel
Iowa City Press-Citizen

Diana Paulina is being remembered as a strong woman who influenced the lives of alternative school students in Iowa City.

Paulina, 62, died early Monday following a lengthy battle with cancer. She had taught language arts, reading and drama at the alternative Community Education Center in the Iowa City School District for 14 years. In recent years, she had worked as vice president of Avalon Networks in Iowa City and as co-owner of da Woods Bed and Breakfast with her husband, Kevin Crawley.

Hani Elkadi taught with Paulina at CEC from 1984 until her resignation in 1998. He said she played an integral part in the growth of alternative education in Iowa City, including winning Educator of the Year from the Iowa Association of Alternative Educators in 1996. Elkadi said he, Paulina and current Tate High Principal Stephanie Phillips were part of the same generation of alternative educators.

"She would give hours and hours of time," Elkadi said of Paulina. "(Her death) closes a huge chapter of alternative education in this town."

Phillips said she became friends with Paulina while working as a coordinator in the district's Central Administrative Office, where the CEC was housed until 2005, when it became Tate High and moved into its own building at 1528 Mall Drive.

A painting depicting Paulina sitting on a crescent moon that had been recovered from the Lenoch-Cilek building downtown now is displayed at Tate High. Phillips said it represented Paulina's love of reading and students.

"She was a lady of letters," Phillips said. "I was always impressed with her ability to connect with disenfranchised young people. It's a huge loss."

One of the students she connected with was Katie Bender. Now a 33-year-old cosmetologist in Iowa City, Bender said Paulina was a great influence on her and anyone she came into contact with.

"She was an amazing woman," said Bender, a 1994 CEC graduate. "She was an independent, decisive voice. She had a great faith and determination to see the worth in everyone. She was very strong-willed, and she brought strength to her students."

Arrangements are pending at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service, with no date set yet for services.

Here's my first draft of the obit:

Diana Paulina died peacefully Monday morning, after fourteen months of intense negotiations with lung cancer.

Diana was born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1969. She spent five years in Europe, taking courses in what her father would call 'the school of hard knocks,' and then enrolled in the Alternative Education graduate program at Indiana University. After a brief stint at a one-room alternative school in central Iowa she moved to Iowa City to complete her Master's coursework.

In 1980, she co-founded and co-directed Unbound, Inc, a residential counseling center for people leaving cults. She was a language arts, reading and school of hardknocks teacher at the Iowa City alternative school, CEC, from 1984 to 1998. She also served variously as librarian, volleyball and softball coach, drama instructor, videographer, prom coordinator, banker, computer teacher and troubleshooter, assistant janitor and political agitater. She was an active member of the Iowa City Education Association, serving as both Vice-President and President. In 1999, she took a position with Avalon Networks. She retired from there in 2003 to care for her parents and to open da Woods Bed and Breakfast.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, and she blogged much of the experience. Friends are invited to kevin-and-diana.blogspot.com for the gory details.

She loved wordplay, reading, music, gardening, crafts, learning and teaching. She was also pretty fond of her cohort of thirty years, Kevin Crawley. Diana approached everything she did with passion and determination, and she served as a role model, inspiration and font of wit and wisdom to her students, friends and family.

She is survived by her husband and her mother, Marie Paulina, both of Iowa City, her brother Carl Paulina, of Ann Arbor, MI, her sister Susan Johnson of Osceola, WI, as well as sixteen brothers-and-sisters-in-law, twenty-two nieces and nephews and a host of friends she called her 'Iowa City family.' She is preceded by her father, Walter "Shorty" Paulina.

A memorial will be held on Saturday, May 10 in da Woods at 2030 and 2040 Dubuque Road. A tree will be planted around 3 pm, with the wake going quite a bit longer. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Emma Goldman Clinic.