“Butler lost a good one.”

Those were the words of Linda Franiewski after learning of the death Tuesday of Joan Chew, Butler County’s first female commissioner, a humanitarian and a tireless volunteer.

“They don’t make them like her anymore. They just don’t,” said Franiewski, who recently retired as executive director of the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center, of which Chew served on the board of the directors.

We agree.

Chew truly was a remarkable woman.

She supported numerous organizations, including the Butler Area Public Library, Butler County Community College and Slippery Rock University. In addition to the Gaiser Center, she served on numerous boards and campaigns, including the BC3 trustees, Center for Community Resources, the American Cancer Society, and the Save the Hospital Campaign.

Chew was a consistent contributor to the BC3 Education Foundation and established the Joan Chew Scholarship at BC3 in 2006.

In addition to the many boards she served on and her service to the community, including a term as Butler County treasurer, she always was eager to lend a hand, passing out letters, knocking on doors for a cause she believed in.

Dr. William DiCuccio met Chew more than 50 years ago when they served on an advisory board for Pittsburgh National Bank.

Years later, Chew and her second husband, Orvan Peterson, visited the school and mission that DiCuccio and his wife started in the Dominican Republic.

According to a 2014 story in the Butler Eagle, Chew, a former school teacher, and Peterson, a former college professor, supplied financial support to the school.

“It is absolutely wonderful,” she said of the visit to the school. “These people are so happy.”

Chew, 91, was a fighter. She survived multiple bouts with cancer.

In a Facebook post this week, former county District Attorney Randa Clark DiMaria described Chew as “one of Butler’s great warrior women” and said she always admired her “quick wit and amazing intellect.”

Friends say she was spunky, and if you stopped by her home, she likely would put you to work.

DiCuccio said he will miss his longtime friend.

“I was the son she never had,” DiCuccio said. “I said goodbye to her last week. I had tears rolling down my cheeks. She was like a mother to me. You never knew a politician who wanted to help so many other people. She wasn’t selfish. She was all about helping other people.”

We agree. There aren’t many people like Joan Chew. She will be missed.

— JGG