Joyce (Johnson) Bonk
Joyce (Johnson) Bonk, former assistant curator of books at the William L. Clements Library, died June 9 in Ann Arbor, in the care of the staff at Huron Woods — a memory support assisted living community at St. Joseph Mercy — and Arbor Hospice.
She was born in Dovray, Minn., on March 25, 1926, the daughter of Hans and Olga (Julien) Johnson. She graduated in 1948 from the University of Minnesota, where she met her first husband, Wallace J. Bonk, of Two Rivers, Wisc. After marrying in October 1948, they moved to Commerce, Texas, where Wally worked at East Texas State University (now part of Texas A&M), teaching from 1949-52.
In 1952 Wally Bonk entered graduate school at U-M while working in the University Catalog Department, and Joyce Bonk worked as a librarian in old Ann Arbor High School, at the corner of State Street and Huron Avenue. Having earned his Ph.D., Wally joined the faculty of the School of Library Science at U-M. In 1956 Joyce joined the staff of the William L. Clements Library as assistant curator of books; she remained in this position until her retirement in 1992. Wally died in 1979. In 1999 Joyce married Edwin Woodworth, a longtime family friend whose late wife Marge had been Joyce’s colleague at the Ann Arbor High School library. Woodworth died in 2002.
Bonk was preceded in death by her parents and her brothers, Irvin and Winston. She is survived by her sister Janice (David) Tweet of Eden Prairie, Minn.; step-children Ann Woodworth of New Buffalo, Mich., Jim (Ann) Woodworth of St. Pete Beach, Fla., and Jane (Fred) Pettit of Ann Arbor; sister-in-law Barbara (Riggs) Knapp, of Dexter; and sisters- and brothers-in-law Frances (Fritz) Puls, Carol (Roger) Puls and Lorraine Maresh of Two Rivers, Shirley (Don) Brault of Mt. Horeb, Wisc., and Leonard Rybarczyk of Illinois.
A memorial gathering will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Huron Woods chapel.
Memorial contributions may be made to Huron Woods, 5361 McAuley Drive, P.O. Box 995, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 or to the Wallace and Joyce Bonk Scholarship Fund, School of Information, The University of Michigan, 4322 North Quad, 105 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-8031.
— Courtesy Mary Pedley, William L. Clements Library
