In loving memory of Faith MaRu Joy Poch Bode
January 3, 1942 – May 27, 2025
June Marie Huebner,The Bode family would like to announce the passing of their matriarch, Faith MaRu Joy Poch on May 27, 2025 from renal failure and congestive heart failure.
Faith was born on January 3, 1942 in St. Charles, IL to Harold Frank Poch and Martha Ruth Schuster Poch.
When still a small child her family moved to Chicago where she lived until she left for college.
Faith’s youth was filled with many eclectic experiences that were unlike those of other kids her age.
Being far ahead of their time her parents would host parties that included a broad spectrum of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
She would often meet people of color, Asians, Jewish people, artisans and, more generally, a collection of people that closely matched that of Chicago as a whole.
And as she grew older her father would include her whenever he needed to work on the family automobiles allowing Faith to learn mechanical skills frequently denied girls of that time period.
As the family recovered from the effects of WW II they expanded her life’s experiences with a camping trip across Europe as well as trips to the Caribbean countries including even Cuba.
Especially memorable to her were her bicycling camping trips with her father that would take them on a vast spectrum of wonderful and unique experiences.
All of these experiences helped prepare her for an exceptional career in teaching.
After graduating from high school she attended Knox College in Galesburg, IL where she got a degree in German.
Towards the end of her undergraduate degree she decided on a major career shift towards education.
This lead her to work a summer in Germany and subsequently entering the University of Oregon where she earned a masters degree in Special Education.
After obtaining her Masters she moved to the Denver area where she started her Special Ed teaching career teaching at Alameda Middle School.
In 1968 she gave up teaching in Colorado and moved to Sweet Home, OR where she began teaching in their junior high school.
It was while she was teaching in Sweet Home that she became engaged to Jerry, a man she had met while at the University of Oregon, and with whom she would spend the next 55 years.
They married during her move to Southern California on November 28, 1969 in Yosemite Valley and settled in Solana Beach.
Faith picked up her teaching career in the Fall of 1970 school year with a teaching job with the Carlsbad School District where she would be for 30 years.
The power of her teaching and her belief that the abilities of kids with special needs was undervalued was proven at the end of her first semester when her entire class tested out of Special Ed and were mainstreamed.
She loved and enjoyed her teaching career. She enjoyed seeing her students achieve more than what was expected and seeing her students excited about their own achievements.
Over the years her tremendous impact to these children was acknowledged many times including Teacher of the Year.
She and Jerry had 2 sons which she loved and cherished.
They worked hard at making sure the boys had the time and emotional space in which to grow. Faith took on full parental duties when Jerry, who worked in oceanography, would need to be gone for several months at a time.
One year she showed her Frontier spirit while he was gone. It was an especially wet year and a dry stream bed the crossed our road became a full sized creek.
When she determined the water was too deep to safely drive through she parked the car and carried each boy across the creek on her back and then walked them the remaining 3/4 mile of muddy road to our house. The boys still talk about that experience.
Faith took great pleasure in being able to raise her family in her country home of 50 years with space for the boys to grow and experience the wildlife of the area.
She enjoyed seeing the coyotes, bobcats, quail and other birds, deer, snakes and trail camera photos of foxes, opossums and the occasional mountain lion.
Happily, as she approached the end of her life she was peaceful and pain free and was able to say her goodbyes to her many friends and her entire family.
She is survived by her husband Jerry, her brother Todd, her sons Teague and Nate, and her grandchildren Ariella, Nasi, Gilliah, Maliya, Gaia, Liliana and Sol.
A “Celebration of Faith’s Life” will be held on September 13, 2025 from 2:30 to 4:30 PM at the Olivenhain Meeting Hall, To help our planning please RSVP to [email protected].
