JOYCE ANN (ANDRICK) MERRITT
Joyce Ann (Andrick) Merritt was born Jan. 25, 1943 in Williamston, Mich. and died Oct 30, 2024, in Woodburn, Ore. She was 81 years old. She was a resident of Keizer for 43 years. She died of complications from seizures and dementia. She was surrounded by her daughters Melanie and Shanie and her sister Jill before she passed.
Joyce is survived by daughters Melanie Pfaff and Shanie Hill, of Keizer, Ore., her sisters Jill (Andrick) of Dallas, Ore. and Judy Weller, of Vancouver, Wash. granddaughter Cassidy Pfaff, of Billings, Mont., grandson Nick Pfaff, of Salem, Ore., grandson Zach Hill of Keizer, Ore., grandson Gavin Hill of Keizer, Ore., great-grandson Otis Pfaff, of Salem, Ore. and cousin Linda Kruger of Juneau, Ala. She was preceded in death by her daughter Heather Merritt and her husband Bob Merritt, as well as her parents Edward and Virgina (Andrick).
Joyce’s childhood was spent in and around Michigan. Her family moved to Oregon when she was in middle school, where she attended Leslie Middle School and graduated from South Salem High School, class of 1960. She attended college at University of Oregon, from 1960-62, then Portland State University from 1962-63. She married her school sweetheart, Robert Stewart Merritt on Sept. 13, 1963. She raised a family and finished her BA degree at Willamette University in Organizational Communication in 1987.
Joyce worked most of her career for the State of Oregon. She worked for the Oregon Corrections Division from 1982-1986. Joyce received the Oregon Governor’s Management Service Award in 1986. Her employer was re-named Oregon Department of Corrections and she became their Safety Risk Manager in 1987 and worked in that regard for them until 1996. Joyce received Employee of the Year, for the Oregon Department of Corrections in 1991. She worked for the OR Department of Consumer and Business Services (1996-1997).
After temporarily retiring from the State of Oregon, she worked a brief stint from 1997-1998, in Seattle, Wash., which allowed her to enjoy an adventure, owning her own houseboat and moving it from Olympia, Wash. up through the Puget Sound, through the Ballard Locks, where she moored it in a houseboat community on Lake Union in Seattle. She moved back to Keizer, Ore. in 1998 to be closer to her daughters and grandchildren.
Joyce really never stopped working. After “retiring,” Joyce continued to enjoy work in a variety of forms. She worked for OR Women’s Correctional Center (1998-2001) and Oregon State Penitentiary and other local DOC offices (2001-2003). She was the State Agency Safety Consultant for DAS from 2003-2004. Joyce Worked for Silverton Hospital in HR, then officially came out of retirement and back to state service for OR Parks and Recreation Department in HR (2005-2010), Oregon Youth Authority (2010), Parks and Prisons Program with OPRD (2010-2011) and continued to work for OR Parks and Recreation Department in a few different jobs from 2011 until her actual retirement sometime later. Even then, Joyce continued to work for the Christian Science Reading Room and was involved in the Christian Science Church in Salem, Ore.
Joyce was always active as a volunteer for her various churches, as a Board Member and Teacher’s Aide for the preschool where her daughters attended in Lebanon, as a Board Member for the Salem Hospital Head Injury Support Group where her husband Bob received care. She volunteered as a Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Service Hotline Responder, for SOLV in Portland, Ore., for Interfaith Hospitality Network in Salem and was a Pentacle Theatre Guild volunteer in Salem. She was also a board member for PRISM Inc, Providing Transitional Housing for Women Offenders and volunteered for Center for Hope and Safety in Salem, Ore.
Joyce raised two daughters while working full time, finishing college and establishing safety risk management as a priority in state of Oregon agencies she represented. She cared for her husband Bob, who was a very young stroke patient, due to an unknown heart defect in his late thirties, until his death at age 50. She continued to adventure with her girls on camping and road trips and always appreciated the Oregon Coast and the Oregon Cascade Range wilderness. Throughout her life, Joyce enjoyed music, camping, canoeing, drawing and being in nature with friends and family. Joyce loved reading and bookstores, theater, costuming, the Japanese language and culture, knitting, crocheting, quilts, dogs, women’s issues and social justice.
We are delaying a memorial gathering for Joyce to accommodate family needs. If you knew Joyce and would like to be notified of this gathering, please email the family at: [email protected]. Please include in your email the way you met Joyce, in what context you knew her and any memories you wish to share with the family. Joyce would not have wanted money spent on flowers, but she would be pleased to have donations in her memory sent to any organization she volunteered for, specifically, the one now called Center for Hope and Safety in Salem, Ore.