Teacher, missionary, community health educator, public health administrator, volunteer, advocate for justice

Fern Jo Kaukonen died April 5 at age 81. She was born October 1, 1942 at the family home in California Borough on the Monongahela River in Washington County, Coal Center, Washington, Pennsylvania. She was named after her two grandmothers, Fernand Carly Delbarre and Josefiina Peltohaka Kaukonen, both of whom died before she was born.

Fern Jo graduated from Slippery Rock University in 1964, earning a B.S. degree and majoring in health and physical education. She received a master’s degree in public health with a focus in community health education from San Jose State University in 1975.

She worked as a teacher for eight years at Brookville Junior and Senior High School in Pennsylvania, the American Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where she served for three years as a United Methodist missionary, and at Benjamin Franklin Public High School in New York City. She moved to San Diego, California in 1973 and two years later took a job as supervisor of the San Jose Health Education Department in San Jose, California. She later became the assistant executive director at Woman’s Community Clinic in San Jose, then the executive director of Tri-City Health Center, a community clinic in Fremont, California for 12 years. Before retiring in 2008, she worked for 10 years as the public health clinic director for the City of Berkeley, California.

Kaukonen was the wife of Katherine L. “Kae” Lewis. They met in 1970, became good friends for 15 years, then life partners for 20 years before they married on September 14, 2008 joined by family and close friends, on a beautiful romantic evening aboard a yacht in the San Francisco Bay. They shared their lives together for 36 years.

Her main focus in life was in service for others, focusing on civil rights, equity and justice for all. In May 2011 the couple moved to Pilgrim Place, a senior living community in Claremont, joining others who are committed to justice, peace, and care of the Earth.

In retirement she volunteered, serving as chair of the City of Claremont’s Committee on Human Relations from 2017 to 2020. While living at Pilgrim Place she served as co-chair of its Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Recruitment Advisory Group, was a member of the Napier Initiative Selection Steering Committee, the Andiron Talks Committee, the Sights and Sounds Committee, and various task forces. She also played drums and other percussion instruments with the Pilgrim Pickers Band. During retirement her main hobbies and interests were ceramic potting, leading water aerobics, genealogy research, traveling throughout all 50 states, and visiting 35 countries.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Eino G. Kaukonen (1918-1972) and Estella R.  Delbarre Kaukonen (1916-2011); uncles Charles Delbarre, Charles Wilbur Delbarre, Wilho Edward Kaukonen, Tovio Eugene Kaukonen, Everett Konstantin Kaukonen; and aunts Alline Delbarre Gabrik and Dolores Sterbenz Kaukonen.

Surviving her, in addition to her wife Katherine, are her brother Dale Ray Kaukonen of Irwin, Pennsylvania; nieces Jamie Rae Kaukonen Jarmon of Salem, West Virginia, Kelly Kratofil Macheska of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, Nikki Lewis of Houston, Texas, Lori Lewis (Dave) Nieman of New Boston, Michigan, and Amy Lewis (Matthew) Welch of Monroe, Michigan; nephews Nick M. Kaukonen of Coal Center, Pennsylvania, Scott Lewis (Keely) of Houston, and  Brian Lewis (Lisa), also of Houston; and brothers-in law Brad Lewis (Debbie) of Monroe, Michigan, and Bob Lewis (Louise) of Magnolia, Texas. She is also survived by seven grandnephews, 10 first cousins, and 149 second cousins. Her second cousins on her mother’s side are mainly from western Pennsylvania, and on her paternal side from the Ostrobothnia (western) region of Finland.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 27 at Pilgrim Place’s Decker Hall, 625 Mayflower Rd., Claremont, CA 91711.

Her ashes will be interred at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be donated to Pilgrim Place at pilgrimplace.org/giving, United Methodist Committee on Relief at umcmission.org/give, to any civil rights or justice organization, and/or a favorite charity in her memory.