Joan Sparkman, a longtime Temecula-area community and civic leader who had an elementary school in the city named after her, has died. She was 90.
Sparkman died Tuesday, Dec. 17, of natural causes, her son Steve Sparkman said.
The Temecula resident’s legacy of service began when she moved to Temecula in 1969. She quickly dedicated herself to education, development and numerous local organizations.
“She was this pioneer who watched Temecula’s community grow, and got a chance to be involved in everything,” Maryann Edwards, a former Temecula city councilmember and mayor, said Friday, Dec. 20.
Sparkman served 22 years on the Temecula Valley Unified School District board, where she helped land funding for new schools and advocated for southwest Riverside County’s educational growth. She also spent 14 years on the Mt. San Jacinto College board.
“You could tell right away that someone special was in your presence because of the aura she had,” said Terry Gilmore, owner of Temecula’s Paradise Chevrolet dealership.
Steve Sparkman on Friday recalled her as “a great mom, as well as a great community and business leader.”
One of the most notable testimonies to Sparkman’s work was the naming of Joan F. Sparkman Elementary School, which educated students until its 2009 closure.
Edwards, whose children attended Sparkman Elementary, said the campus’ namesake was instrumental in establishing the Temecula Valley Unified School District.
“Because she arrived in Temecula so early, she became a part of a new and growing community and had the opportunity to be involved at the grassroots level,” Edwards said.
In addition to her work in education, Sparkman’s leadership extended to the business community. She was president of both the Temecula and Murrieta chambers of commerce. And she was on the Southwest Healthcare System and Temecula Valley Hospital boards.
In a 50-year-plus career, Sparkman received several awards and even had at least one named after her — the Joan Sparkman Unity Award, which is given to people who share her values of community service.
Sparkman’s husband, Will Sparkman, died in 2010. In addition to her son, she is survived by her daughter Margaret and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
“She was just one of those people that everybody was drawn too, everybody respected, and just one of a kind,” Gilmore said.
