Elaine Ryan

ELAINE RYAN

Coralville

Elaine C. Ryan, 71, of Coralville, passed away peacefully after a long illness on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, at Highland Ridge Care Center in Williams-burg. A memorial reception to celebrate Elaine's life will be

Friday, Aug. 28, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Kirkwood Room, 515 Kirkwood Ave., Iowa City.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Elaine Ryan Language Arts Fund at Northwest Junior High School in Coralville.

Elaine was born Dec. 14, 1943, in Delavan, Ill., the daughter of Alfred and Janet Pullum Cremeens. She spent her childhood in Delavan and surrounding central Illinois commun-ities before the family moved to Fairfield, Iowa, the summer before her senior year in high school. She graduated from Fairfield High School in June 1961 and attended the University of Oklahoma for her first year of college before completing her undergraduate education at the University of Illinois in 1965.

After teaching high school language arts for one year each in Tipton and Wilton, Iowa, Elaine completed her Master of Arts degree in English education at the University of Iowa in 1968. She later went on to acquire more than 60 graduate hours after finishing her master's degree.

Elaine married Robert A. Ryan III on June 10, 1965, at McKinley Presbyterian Church in Champaign, Ill., and they lived most of their lives in Iowa City and Coralville. Elaine taught seventh and eighth grade language arts for more than 40 years in the Iowa City Community school district.

In addition, for the last eight years of her teaching career, she served as the district's Language Arts coordinator. She was one of the original staff which opened Northwest Junior High School in Coralville, and was a teacher at the school for most of her teaching career. She retired, with plans to read and travel, in May 2010.

During her teaching career, Elaine was involved with several educational organizations, including both the national and state education associations. She was a member of the educator committees that certified the accreditation of several Iowa school districts. Elaine was an active member of the Iowa Council of Teachers of English, serving as the organization's treasurer for several years. She was the first secondary level teacher to spend a "sabbatical semester" in the University of Iowa's English Education Department through a cooperative program with the Iowa City school district, and she was the Iowa teacher chosen for a national summer workshop at the Smithsonian Institution's Holocaust Museum.

She had published articles on language arts instruction in the English Journal. In 2005, Elaine was honored with the Distinguished Service Award by the Iowa Council of Teachers of English.

Survivors include her husband; her daughter, Paige McGee (Travis), and grandchildren, McKenzie and Hunter Hoffman of Neola, Iowa; and brother, Dennis Cremeens (Patricia) of Peoria, Ill.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

Online condolences may be directed to www.lensing funeral.com.