Chew, 1st female commissioner, dies
Joan Chew of Butler was an ardent supporter of the Republican Party who became the county's first female commissioner.
She survived several bouts with cancer before she died at age of 91 Tuesday morning in the South Side neighborhood home where she was born and raised.
Chew also served on the board of the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Center, on the board of trustees at Butler County Community College and then county-owned Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and as the county treasurer.
Retired Common Pleas Court Judge Martin J. O'Brien said he and Chew lived a block away from each other as children.
“She was a good friend, and I'm very sorry to see her pass,” O'Brien said.
He said his late sister, Ellen O'Brien Gaiser, after whom the Gaiser center was named, was also a friend to Chew.
“Joan was a very close friend of my sister, Ellen O'Brien Gaiser, who was executive director (of the center),” O'Brien said. “Joan was recovering from one of her bouts with cancer, and she helped my sister recover. They held hands with each other and commiserated, and got through it all.”
After he retired from the bench in the mid-2000s, O'Brien said he was appointed to the Gaiser board and worked with Chew and others to start the center's annual fundraising luncheon.
Chew's first bout with cancer came when she was a young teacher at Center Avenue School in Butler, O'Brien said. She retired as a result of the disease, he said.
Her first husband, Charlie Chew, was appointed a county commissioner in 1969 and was elected to the office in 1972.She became a commissioner in 1999 after her husband died. Chew resigned with 18 months left in her term in June 2002 at age 72 to undergo cancer surgery and recovery.“She was an ardent Republican woman and a woman with strong political views,” O'Brien said. “She had strong views on everything. She was active in the community. She was very civic-minded.“She worked hard to support Republican candidates. She helped with mailing. She did all the nitty-gritty work.”In 1976, Chew was a coordinator for the late Sen. John Heinz' first campaign for the Senate.“She and Charlie, who was legally blind, traveled all over helping with campaign,” said Art Rauschenberger, a former county Republican Party chairman.The Chews and Rauschenberger's parents were friends, and he remembers engaging in discussions about federal, state and local issues with her after he graduated from college.“She was very knowledgeable,” Rauschenberger said.Her political career also included one term as Butler city treasurer from 1980 to 1984 and she served as the county treasurer from 1985 to 1999.The Slippery Rock University graduate worked with many volunteer organizations and sat on many community boards, including the Butler County Humane Society, Butler Memorial Hospital Advisory Board, American Cancer Society and Gaiser center.
Linda Franiewski, who recently retired as executive director of the Gaiser center, described Chew as “fiercely passionate” about Butler.“Butler lost a good one,” Franiewski said. “They don't make them like her anymore. They just don't.”She said Chew was among those who helped her after she became director of the center in 2005.“She impressed me the minute I met her,” Franiewski said. “She was such a strong woman. She was a focused and goal-oriented lady. A great lady.”Franiewski, who was from Pittsburgh, didn't know many people in Butler County when she became director. Chew, O'Brien and other board members introduced her to officials and helped her get started in the position.“No one knew me,” Franiewski said. “They helped me be successful, meet people and gather support for the center to address drug and alcohol addiction in the community.”She said Chew and her second husband, Orvan Peterson, a Butler County Community College professor, were instrumental in her life and she thought of them almost like part of her family.“I was very fortunate to have known both of them,” Franiewski said.
Chew served three terms as a BC3 trustee. She was a trustee from July 1977 through July 1983 before becoming an ex-officio trustee as a county commissioner from January 2000 through June 2002. She then served again as a trustee June 2003 through June 2016, and voted to appoint Nick Neupauer as the college's eighth president in August 2007.Neupauer recalls returning home from BC3 the day he was appointed president and that he and his wife, Tamatha, received flowers of congratulations from Chew and Peterson.“That gesture,” Neupauer said, “is something I have never forgotten. And it is something that I remember on a day like this after she has passed.”Chew was a member of multiple boards of trustees that helped to move the college forward, Neupauer said.“One of those ways was being supportive of what is now our Science, Technology and Cultural Center, and our Public Safety Training Facility,” Neupauer said. “She was also part of a board of trustees that bought into that new president's vision of expanding our quality from Butler County to other counties such as Lawrence, Mercer and Jefferson.”BC3's $17 million Science, Technology and Cultural Center and its $2.5 million Public Safety Training Facility opened in 2002.“She loved this college,” Neupauer said, “not only as a county commissioner, but as a trustee and member of the BC3 Education Foundation board.”
Chew was a consistent contributor to the BC3 Education Foundation and established the Joan Chew Scholarship at BC3 in 2006.Dr. William DiCuccio, a BC3 trustee, said he met Chew more than 50 years ago when they served on an advisory board for Pittsburgh National Bank.Chew asked him to serve on the BC3 board of trustees when she was a county commissioner, he said.“She had a real interest in education,” DiCuccio said.At that time, he was the medical director at Sunnyview. He said there were no assisted living facilities in the county and some of the people staying at Sunnyview didn't belong in a nursing home.“We got state funding to open an Alzheimer's unit and modernize the place. She backed me on that,” he said.Years later in 2006, Chew and Peterson visited the My Eternal Refuge school and mission that DiCuccio and his wife, Marge, started in the Dominican Republic in 2005.“She never saw poverty like that,” he said. “Kids were walking around naked. They had no clothes.”He talked to her last week when her health was declining.“I told her I was the son she never had, and I will always love you. She's a Christian,” 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.”
Bill McCarrier, who was a county commissioner while Chew was county treasurer, said she ran for and won his position after he left the office.“She said she was going to be the first woman commissioner and she won,” McCarrier said. “She was treasurer for many years. She was a very dedicated public servant.”He remembers Chew going to work with husband Charlie when he was a commissioner and assisting him because of his failing eyesight.“Joan read stuff to him in office because he was losing his sight. She was always interested in politics,” he said.When Chew became a commissioner, Peterson worked for free as her secretary, he added.“I supported her. I always knew she wanted to be a commissioner,” McCarrier said.In addition, he said Chew appointed him to the BC3 board of trustees, a position he held for about 20 years before becoming a trustee at Slippery Rock University.Leslie Osche, county commissioners chairwoman, said she met Chew before she ran for the office.“We looked up to her as a leader,” Osche said. “When I decided to run, I called her to talk to her about it. She's always been a mentor. She will certainly be missed.“She made a difference in the county and was an inspiration for me.”
