Joyce R. Newcomb

Janesville- Joy R. Newcomb passed away peacefully on January 11, 2025. She served her community and was always the spark and spirit of her family, proposing creative ideas and continually encouraging the family to undertake new adventures.

She was born in Philadelphia, PA, on April 28, 1925, to parents Raymond and Irma Rieling. Joy loved music, and while in high school was a violinist in the Philadelphia all-city high school orchestra. In 1941, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Joy attended Southwest High School for her senior year. In 1942 she entered the University of Kansas, where she played the French horn in the band. She graduated in 1946 with a BS in Nursing. While in nursing school she won a contest to design a Jayhawk logo for the school.

Following graduation, Joy spent a wonderful year in Hawaii (1946-47) with three good friends who had been Nursing majors in her KU graduating class. The four worked at Kapi‘olani Maternity Hospital (now Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu. Early on, the hospital commandant turned the keys to his unused Jeep over to Joy, thereby providing the four friends unlimited year-long transportation and many happy experiences exploring Oahu in their free hours.

Following her year in Hawaii, Joy worked for several months as a nurse in the Regular Corps of the U. S. Public Health Service at the U. S. Marine Hospital on Staten Island, NY and was honorably discharged as a commissioned officer. In 1948 she was persuaded by Kansas City native and UW graduate student, Eldon Newcomb, to come to Madison, where she worked as a nurse at the UW Hospital. She and Eldon were married on June 21, 1949, in Kansas City, MO.

For a few months after her marriage, Joy served as a nurse at Madison’s Kiddie Camp Convalescent Home for children with rheumatic fever. Thereafter she retired from nursing for about 20 years, devoting her time and efforts to her family and to community service. For several years she was active as a leader in the Girl Scouts. She returned to nursing in 1970 and graduated from UW-Madison’s first class for Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. As a Nurse Practitioner she counseled and assisted new mothers for several years, working with Dr. Ordean Torsteson and Dr. Paul Dvorak in the Dean System. She often expressed her admiration for both doctors in later years. Joy herself was always known as a highly conscientious, considerate and compassionate nurse and nurse practitioner.

Joy loved and excelled in outdoor athletic activities, including ice skating, skiing, swimming, biking, canoeing and sailing. She won several NASTAR medals in skiing and her enthusiasm for the sport propelled her family into many downhill adventures, first during the 1963-64 winter spent in the Boston area, and in subsequent years on numerous trips to skiing areas in Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and several western states. She was often the last skier on the slopes, always wanting to take one last run before the lifts closed. One year she accompanied the Madison Ski Club on a trip to Austria. She also loved swimming, and in 1964 became a qualified Red Cross swimming instructor. She learned to SCUBA dive on Heron Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 1976 and earned her SCUBA Diver Certificate at Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Florida in 1977. A passionate sailor, Joy sailed her 12-ft. Nordex on Lake Wingra for several years, and then her beloved 23-ft. O’Day on Lake Mendota. She was an avid canoeist and enthusiastically persuaded her family to take trips on the Wisconsin and other state rivers and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. She also greatly enjoyed family summertime camping trips in northern Wisconsin and several western states.

The year 1976 spent in Australia with her husband was a highlight of Joy’s life. Together with Eldon, she spent two months at research stations on the Great Barrier Reef, one on Lizard Island at the Reef’s far north, and the second on Heron Island much further south on the Reef. She took great pleasure in recalling the underwater beauties of the Reef. In Canberra she joined the “Bushwalkers,” a group of hardy women devoted to taking strenuous treks into the Eucalyptus-covered hills beyond the city. She developed several warm friendships among the Bushwalkers that lasted throughout their lives.

Joy was active in UW-Madison’s University League for more than 60 years, and belonged to several League activity groups. She was responsible for establishing the Hiking Group in the League, motivated by her experiences with the Bushwalkers during her year in Australia. She served The League in a number of official positions, including the presidency in 1993-94. Thereafter, she became Archivist of The League and for several years spent countless hours sorting through its mass of scattered records and articles, systematizing, indexing, and finally depositing these in UW-Madison’s Steenbock Library. Joy was also active in the Attic Angel Association as a member of the Class of 1987, and made a special effort to visit with residents and patients at the Attic Angel Community.

Survivors include her son, Dr. N. Robert Newcomb (daughter-in-law Dr. Maria E. Taveras) of Janesville, WI; daughter Cynthia I. Newcomb, of Middleton, WI; grandchildren Christine T. Newcomb Albee (Andrew Albee) of Basalt, CO, and Charles R. Newcomb (Renée Hilario Newcomb) of Palmetto, FL; and great-grandchildren Octavia and Madelyn Albee and Jack Newcomb. She was preceded in death by her husband, Eldon H. Newcomb, her parents, her brother, Raymond R. Rieling, Jr., and her daughter, Barbara P. Newcomb. 

A private memorial service will be held by the family. Memorial contributions may be made to The Eldon and Joy Newcomb Fund at the UW-Madison Dept. of Botany and The University League.

The family would like to express much gratitude to the skillful and compassionate nurses and social workers at Agrace Hospice in Janesville.

Please share your memories of Joy by posting in her Guestbook.

Cress Funeral Services

3610 Speedway Road, Madison

(608) 238-3434