Joli Reding Munch

Joli Reding Munch

1953-2025

Joli Reding Munch, loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and friend, died peacefully at her home on April 5, 2025. She was 71 years old.

The second of seven children, Joli was born on August 30, 1953, to Audrey and John Reding on Offutt Air Force Base. As a child, she lived in Bellevue, Maryland, Texas, California, and Guam before returning to Bellevue, where she would spend the rest of her life.

Joli knew from an early age that she wanted to be a teacher and an elementary school principal. Employed by Bellevue Public Schools from 1975 until 2012, she was a sixth-grade teacher at Birchcrest and LeMay elementary schools and then the principal at Bertha Barber, Leonard Lawrence, Fort Crook, and Betz; after her “official” retirement, she continued to substitute teach until 2020. She was always tickled to run into now-grown ex-students, even the ones she remembered as troublemakers.

When she wasn’t busy teaching–and she always seemed to be busy teaching, because she loved it so much–Joli was an avid reader, devouring everything from news magazines to gardening books to historical fiction capers. She loved singing, from hymns as part of the St. Mary’s choir on Sundays to carols at her mother’s house on Christmas Eve to impromptu arias at the kitchen table. She also loved to travel. Family vacations criss-crossed the lower 48; later excursions would see her touring ancient breweries across Europe.

Vacations with Joli were peppered with cultural stops: art galleries, natural history and science museums, presidential libraries. At home, one of her weekend pastimes was taking her kids to Joslyn Art Museum, where she would visit her “old friends” adorning the walls; trips to Rotella’s or Orsi’s for a treat of fresh warm bread would often follow. Later in life, she volunteered at The Durham Museum.

Above all these–reader, singer, traveler, cultural connoisseur–Joli was a passionate gardener. With winter still in the air, she would start her tomato and pepper plants from seed, growing them under fluorescent lights in the basement until they could be transplanted once the weather warmed. She spent most of her summer evenings in her gardens, watering this, weeding that, breathing in the smells of turned soil, tomato vines, and freshly spread grass clippings. She delighted in sharing the bounty of her work–come mid-summer, neighbors, family, and coworkers alike could expect to fall victim to receiving at least one of her bags of zucchini–but more than that, she enjoyed sharing her knowledge of her beloved plants. She knew their habits, their likes and dislikes, and she could name them all by genus and species, rattling off Latin names even the ancient Romans couldn’t pronounce. Mercifully, she required her children (and later, her grandchildren) to recite only the common names of at least ten herbs before letting them go inside to watch their shows.

Joli met her husband, Mike, in first grade at St. Mary’s School in Bellevue, where they were cast together in a Christmas play. They reconnected as sophomores at Bellevue (now Bellevue East) High School. Mike proposed to Joli at a high school basketball game. They were married just shy of 51 years.

Friends and family will agree that Joli did everything in her own time, often on her own terms. She was an inveterate procrastinator, usually waiting until the last possible moment to write essays for school, pack for a trip, or even wrap Christmas presents, but she claimed she did her best work that way. She demanded much of herself, and she expected much of others, particularly her children, who she insisted would be decent, honest, hardworking individuals. Her lasting legacy may be the fact that all three eventually learned how to “use the brains God gave them” and married people who did the same.

She liked Twinings tea, Belgian beer, and highly rated cheap wine. She enjoyed old movies and warm socks. She had a great smile and a loud, genuine laugh.

Joli is preceded in death by her parents, Audrey and John; her brother, James Reding; and her grandson, Zachary Munch. She is survived by her siblings, Shawn (Bill) King, Laure (Dann) Husmann, Tom (Dee Dee) Reding, Dan (Jennifer) Reding, and Mary Reding, as well as many nieces and nephews. She is survived by her husband, Michael; her children and their spouses, Joseph and Erika Munch, Katy and Clay Britton, and Steve Munch and Jenna Sheldon-Sherman; and her grandchildren, John, Grant, Maria, Cara, Elisabeth, Henry, Jack, Evaline, and Sophia Louise.

In lieu of sending flowers to express condolences, please consider visiting Joslyn Art Museum, The Durham Museum, Lauritzen Gardens, and/or the Bellevue Public Library and making a small donation in her honor.