JoAnn Williams Bouson, 79, teacher

JoAnn Williams Bouson fell in love with Latin culture in the 1950s when she spent a college semester as a Spanish-language exchange student in Mexico City.

Mrs. Bouson earned a master's degree in education at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico before settling in Willingboro in 1976.

From 1977 to her retirement in 2002, she was director of the English as a second language (ESL) program at the Camden campus of Rowan University.

In the 1990s, Mrs. Bouson served as president of the New Jersey Teachers of English as a Second Language, a daughter, Marisa Bouson, said.

On Wednesday, April 15, Mrs. Bouson, 79, of Oaklyn, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at her home.

"She had a tremendous influence on an awful lot of people," Ruth Pappas, who worked for Mrs. Bouson as an ESL teacher at Rowan in the 1980s and '90s, said.

"She created the program," Pappas said. "It started from nothing."

Because of Mrs. Bouson's efforts, Pappas said, "she was the program."

Born in Oceanside, Calif., Mrs. Bouson earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish at the University of Washington.

While teaching Spanish-language classes at a Washington high school, she met her future husband, Jose Bouson, at a dance at Fort Lewis, an Army base near Tacoma where he was serving his enlistment.

After marrying, they moved to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, where she taught English classes from 1972 to 1976, their daughter said.

Once settled in Willingboro, Mrs. Bouson taught Spanish at the Dr. Henry Hill Davis School in Camden in the 1976-77 school year, before beginning her Rowan career.

In 1988, she earned a doctorate in linguistics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Commuting to New Brunswick while running the Rowan program made her doctorate work very difficult, but she wanted to do it, her daughter said.

In May 2000, her daughter said, Mrs. Bouson was given the leadership award of the state ESL teachers organization.

Her students came from across the globe, her daughter said, "from Vietnam, Turkey, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic."

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Bouson is survived by a son, Joseph; another daughter, Jeanne Franklin; 12 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her husband, Jose, died in 2012 and their daughter Lisa in 1966.

Visitation was set for 11:30 a.m. Monday, April 20, at the Falco Caruso & Leonard Funeral Home, 6600 Browning Rd., Pennsauken, before a 12:30 funeral there, with interment in Camden County Veterans Cemetery in Camden.

Donations may be sent to the Alzheimer's Association South Jersey Regional Office, Suite 310, 3 Eves Dr., Marlton, N.J. 08053.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.carusocare.com.

610-313-8134 @WNaedele