Adele S. (Schieble) Looney

ADELE SCHIEBLE LOONEY, almost 101, died February 4, 2024 at home in Wadsworth, Ohio.  Adele a tireless, committed, and joyful educator, advocate, and organizer for peace, nonviolence, women’s rights, and racial, environmental and economic justice, was also a dedicated wife [John]; loving mother [Marcia Hartman (Joel), Mark (Mary Anne Staniszewski)]; grandmother and great-grandmother [Katherine Hartman (Larry Williams and Ramona), Matthew Hartman (Megan)]; and devoted friend. Her sister, Rae Jean McDonald, of Morton, Illinois, predeceased her. Raised in River Forest, Illinois, by her parents, Raymond and Adeline Schieble (Sanderson), Adele received a dual BA degree in English and Dietetics from Rosary College (now Dominican University), and later obtained a teaching certification through studies at the University of Akron. Adele met her future husband, John, while he was completing his law degree at DePaul University Law School in Chicago.

For almost a quarter of a century, Adele skillfully taught 7th and 8th grade courses at the Wadsworth Junior High School where she was also active in the teacher’s association. She first taught English (grammar, composition, and literature and her son Mark was one of her students) and then Home Economics (cooking and sewing). Adele successfully advocated to teach co-ed cooking and sewing classes. She was a Girl Scouts Troop Leader, including for her daughter Marcia’s troop. Adele was also active in the local chapter of the women’s group, Sorosis.

Beginning in the early ‘60's, together with John, Adele hosted American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) speakers and peace caravans, worked on fair housing and church integration, racial justice training, and full funding for public education in Wadsworth and she joined the Summit County Coalition for Peace. Adele and John helped found the Akron Friends (Quaker) Meeting and she served as its Clerk, Secretary, and Treasurer. She also became a founder and leader of the Wadsworth Peace Committee and its successor, the Wadsworth-Norton-Barberton Peace Committee (later renamed Embracing Justice and Peace Group), which focused on the nuclear disarmament, nonviolence, and shifting military budgets to spending for human needs. She served on the boards and was an active volunteer in Wadsworth with Meals on Wheels and its parent organization, FISH, and with the Akron area interfaith/interracial organization, Women’s Interfaith Spiritual Heritage (WISH).

Adele was a vociferous reader and enjoyed book clubs, music, tennis, Tai-chi, Qigong, hiking, and swimming. She was humanistic, kind, creative, eloquent, affirming, understanding, brilliant, tenacious for peace and justice, humorous, optimistic, and loving. Adele lived her life as she wanted the world to be. For 61 years, Adele and John helped, encouraged, caringly critiqued, and loved each other. They enjoyed summer vacations at Blue Mountain Lake, New York, where they had vacationed on their second honeymoon in the 1940’s.

A Quaker service reflecting on and celebrating her life will be held on Saturday, May 18, at 3:30 PM at the First Mennonite Church, 405 Trease Road in Wadsworth. A common meal will follow the service at 5:30 PM at the River Styx Park Pavilion, 8200 River Styx Road in Wadsworth. There is a memorial tree for John at this park next to the trees for John and Adele’s good friends, Marion and Bob Stroud. Adele loved to walk by these trees and to pause to appreciate them and the lake. Please RSVP if attending the meal to Mark Looney (mwl99@yahoo.com). Donations may be given in Adele’s memory to the Friends Committee on National Legislation  (www.fcnl.org) and Move to Amend (www.movetoamend.org).

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