Joan M. Stamper

Joan Marie (Long) Stamper, 87, of North Bend passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 8, 2025. Joan will be remembered for her kindness, positive outlook on life, friendly chats, quick wit, and her dedication to the community. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend, and an ardent supporter of the Bay Area community.

Joan was born on July 13, 1937, in Eugene, OR, to Melvin and Marie Long. She spent most of her childhood alongside her older sister Pat in Eugene, where her father owned and ran Long’s Meat Market. During World War II, her father, who was in the U.S Army Air Corp reserves, was called into service as a meat cutter and stationed in Anaheim, CA, on a base where Disneyland now stands. They lived on Balboa Island in vacation cottages rented by the military for families. She and the other kids took a boat to school and ran around the island, playing and swimming in the bay. She said recently she felt a little guilty that she had the most wonderful time during the war.

Joan graduated from Eugene High School in 1955, where she was in National Honor Society and Girl’s League president. She went on to attend University of Oregon as a liberal arts major, which she credited in making her a particularly good Trivial Pursuit player later in life. She joined Alpha Phi sorority, making life-long friends, served as Panhellenic president her senior year, and was in the Mortar Board and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies. She graduated in 1959, moved to Portland to live with three sorority sisters, and worked in an advertising agency, first as a receptionist then as a media buyer.

During her senior year of college, she met Tom Stamper on a blind date. She was supposed to go out with a 6’2” blonde basketball player, but 5’8” brunette Tom showed up instead. Fate clearly intervened. They married June 12, 1960, in Eugene, and spent 63 years together until Tom’s death December 2, 2023. They had a marriage that others admired, always treating each other with kindness and respect.

They lived and worked in Portland for two years, living on Tom’s salary and saving Joan’s so that they could quit their jobs in September 1962 and spend three month traveling Europe, using “Europe on $5 a Day” as their guide. It sparked a life-long love of travel that included trips to Japan, Tahiti, most of the U.S. states, many National Parks, and to Europe several times.

They moved to Coos Bay, OR, in December of that year so Tom could join the family business, Stamper’s J & J Tire Co., and work with his father, Jack Stamper, and brother, Charles “Chuck” Stamper. For several years they lived in the 10th Street basement apartment of Jack and Florence Stamper’s house. Joan described Florence as “the nicest mother-in-law ever.”

Joan got involved right away and became a leader in the community. She worked in the admissions office of Southwestern Oregon Community College for two years, was a member of P.E.O Chapter AS for more than 50 years, serving a term as president, and joined the Bay Area Hospital Auxiliary in 1976 to volunteer at the information desk for more than 40 years, serving a term as president during her 11,850 hours. She served on the North Bend School District Budget Committee in the late-1970s following a district-wide closure due to budget constraints.

Tom and Joan had two daughters and built a home together in the Shorewood neighborhood in 1965, with Joan literally painting every board of the beadboard ceiling. For Joan, family came first. She was a dedicated mother, even acting as a Brownie leader for a stint, and sitting through countless dance classes, meets, and games, always with a book in her purse. She encouraged her girls to excel in school, often editing papers for them in the wee hours of the morning, and to get involved in activities, dance, and athletics to become well-rounded, capable women. She led by example, giving her daughters a model of a woman of strong character, honesty, and integrity.

Joan stayed active over the years as an avid walker, swimmer, tennis player, and bicycler, the latter to train for the annual fall bike tours she and Tom began taking in 1986 that took them all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She and Tom sailed and raced at the Coos Bay Yacht Club, and cross country skied in the Cascades, including several trips over Presidents Day weekend to ski in to Elk Lake with a dozen other families, spending two nights in the cabins together.

They enjoyed the arts as well, often traveling to see musicals, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Oregon Symphony, and were long-time patrons of the Oregon Coast Music Festival. After Tom retired in 2000, they began spending winters in La Quinta, CA, and summers in Sunriver, OR, where their growing family would often join them.

Joan developed deep friendships in her 50 plus years in the Bay Area. She and Tom were lucky to have friends that they thoroughly enjoyed, many of whom also loved to travel both as couples and as families, the kids becoming like siblings. Joan played monthly bridge with her bridge club, that remained the same core group of women, up until the day before she passed away.

Tom and Joan believed in giving back to the communities that made the business successful. They gave generously, usually without fanfare, often under The Stamper Family moniker. They established a trust for the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon, supported Bay Area Hospital, the Coos Art Museum, helped the Coos History Museum build a new facility, set up a fund with the Oregon Community Foundation to give grants to nonprofits throughout Coos and Curry counties, and countless other philanthropic endeavors.

But most of all, Joan will be remembered for her sense of humor and the care she showed for the people important to her. She loved to laugh and always found the humor in everyday life. She gave incredible care to Tom in his final years and loved being a grandmother and great-grandmother.

Joan is survived by her daughters Dana Jackson of Allyn, Washington, her husband, Ted Jackson, and Linda Stamper Boyne of Edwards, Colorado; grandchildren Nick Boyne, Megan Kolesari (Matt), Tom Boyne, and Ashley Jackson; great-grandson Tommy Kolesari; nephews Kevin Robertson, Scott Robertson, and Bill Stamper; and nieces JoAnne Sutherland, Julie Stamper, and Janet Holland. She was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas Frank Stamper, parents, Emma Marie (Johnson) Long and Melvin G. Long; and sister, Patricia “Pat” (Long) Robertson.

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, April 25, 2025 at 2 p.m. at the Coos History Museum, 1210 N. Front St, Coos Bay. A dessert reception will follow. Joan loved to wear a little color to a funeral, so if you attend, please wear blue or another color of your choice.

The family will have a private burial service at Sunset Memorial Park. Coos Bay Chapel, 541-267-3131, is managing the arrangements. In lieu of flowers please continue Tom’s and Joan’s legacy of giving by making a donation in their memory to the Coos History Museum or the local organization of your choice.

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