In Memoriam

Joan Champion

Born: Corpus Christi Texas. December 24, 1944
Departed: March 9, 2008 in Santa Rosa California

Joan Champion was born December 24, 1944 in Corpus Christi Texas. She died March 9, 2008 in Santa Rosa California after a year-long battle with cancer. Joan was one of eleven children. Her family moved to California when Joan was six. Family was important to Joan, and she had the capacity for unconditional love and acceptance of all her diverse relations. This also was reflected in her devotion to her husband Alex Champion, her three children and three grandchildren.

Joan’s main interest, other than family, was art. She liked to explore new media and design ideas, and was continuously learning new things. She painted with water colors, she wove, she made dolls, designed T-shirts, created pottery, and learned computer graphics to design websites, program covers and brochures. She loved to paint with water colors, and her paintings are imaginative and innovative. She also participated in many community events and co-operatives to bring art to a larger community. Joan had a long-time goal to create an art program at the Anderson Valley High School near where she lived. (If you wish to donate to this project send a check to AVArts, POB 606, Boonville, CA 94515.)

Joan was a naturally spiritual person, always seeking spiritual information and interested in self-discovery. In 1987, Joan and her husband Alex went for the first time to the West Coast Dowsers’ Conference. That event changed both their lives. In the dowsers, they found their spiritual family, people they felt at home with. Joan loved the dowsers. She loved the laughter, jokes, hugs and spiritual knowledge she found there. The dowsers nurtured many of her talents and beliefs. She increased her involvement with the dowsers when she and Alex joined the West Coast Conference Committee in the early 1990s. The Committee became Joan’s second family.

Joan was a loyal and productive member of her adopted dowser family. She designed covers for Conference programs and lapel pins for the speakers, she set up the website and she managed many of the activities needed to run a conference smoothly. She taught art to children in the WCC Youth program. She later became Conference co-director. She wanted to bring dowsing to a larger audience, so she founded the Mendocino Dowsers chapter of the American Society of Dowsers, and ran the meetings for the last eleven years. She later became an ASD Trustee and served as secretary of the Board of Directors.

Through the dowsers, she and Alex became involved with using labyrinths for spiritual development. She consistently supported him in his research and design of labyrinths across the country. This led to her participation and development of the Art Line Project, a project dedicated to placing labyrinths and/or art along a geographic latitude in the US to create energy for world healing.

Joan was like the labyrinth. When you experience a labyrinth, you come into harmony with its peaceful vibration, and are transformed. Joan had good vibrations, and one was altered just being around her. Joan was always thinking of others more than of herself. Joan inspired us to change by being the way she was. We will miss the sparkle in her eye, her laughter, her contagious smile, her supportive loyalty and her big heart.