Moment in Time (June 16, 2022)
Joan Klitch, former Marble Cliff resident, is shown on the left. On the right is a 1967 photo of her husband Dick from the Columbus Citizen Journal collection. Joan passed away on May 28th, and Dick preceded her in 2021.
Joan and Richard (“Dick”) Klitch were long-time Grandview area residents, raising their family in a Marble Cliff home that they purchased in 1966 at 1373 Cambridge Blvd. Joan (née Smith) graduated from Grandview Heights High School in 1952, having participated in plays and talent shows, multiple sports and cheerleading, and serving on the Highlander staff. Dick was a star basketball and tennis player in Portsmouth (he won the Ohio high school state championship in tennis in 1951.) They both went to Miami University when they graduated from high school. Dick played basketball and tennis at Miami, earning MAC championships in both sports, and Joan excelled in academics, graduating Cum Laude in only three years. Dick and Joan met on a blind date there and were later married.
Joan was one of four siblings. Her brother Eugene (GHHS ’46) was a four-year letterman in football, basketball, and baseball at Grandview, and played professionally in the White Sox baseball organization. Her brother Ed graduated in 1947 from Grandview, played basketball at Harvard, where he was team captain in 1950-51, and was drafted 6th in the first round by the New York Knicks of the NBA. Her brother Terry (GHHS ’54) graduated from the University of Chicago and, like Joan, was an exceptional bridge player, operating the Smith Bridge Studio in Grandview with their mother Helen. For six of those years Terry worked at the national headquarters of the American Contract Bridge League overseeing the tournament division before moving to California for a career in the tech industry.
Dick was also an avid card player but was known mostly for his tennis coaching skills. He was responsible for the development of broad tennis programming across the Columbus metro area through the Greater Columbus Tennis Association. The GCTA, which he cofounded, has a long history of providing organized summer tennis for Columbus area adults and kids. He also was the personal coach and trainer of aspiring tennis players, including more than twenty high school state champions and college and professional athletes. One of the state champions he coached was his daughter Jenny, who went on to her own professional tennis career, playing at Wimbledon and the US Open. She was featured in the March 1980 Sports Illustrated "Faces to Watch" section, which noted that she was the youngest player to win the Ohio State high school tennis title as a freshman in 1979. She retired from the Women's Tennis Association, and is now the commissioner for the Major League Pickleball professional pickleball organization.
The members of the Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society share with the members of the tri-village community the sorrow of the news of Joan’s recent passing at the end of May. Joan was a quiet force in this community. She was active in the PTA, was a member of the GHHS school board, and served as Marble Cliff Clerk Treasurer. In the words of former Mayor of Marble Cliff Kent Studebaker, “[Joan] served as a ‘jack of all trades’ for running the Village on a daily basis. She had an all-around wealth of knowledge from her varied life experiences. She was always looking out for the best interest of the Village.” Joan and Dick were life members in the Historical Society. Her brother Terry is an Emeritus Trustee of the Society, and the two of them were tireless volunteers with the Society.
Dick and Joan were married for 65 years and had five children: Jenny, Jodi, Tim, Beth, and Michael. Tim was three-time individual MAC conference champion at Miami University and played on the men’s pro tennis tour in the 1980s. He was a commercial banker and rose to become president of Comerica in Austin, Texas. Jodi (GHHS ’86) also played tennis in high school, as well as field hockey and cheerleading. Joan was preceded in death by children Michael and Beth. Beth, who attended Miami University and was their first female student body president, was on the first Board of Trustees of the Grandview/Marble Cliff Education Foundation.
Joan’s obituary can be viewed at https://www.statesman.com/obituaries/paco0224211.