Rowena Dorothy Unger Turk passed away on Jan. 10, 2016, at Saint Luke’s Hospice House in Kansas City, Missouri. She was born on March 17, 1939, at the University Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa. She and her twin brother, Bernard, were the children of Dr. Harold Unger and Ruth Cohen Unger. Sister Phyllis was born in May of 1940. After several years of traveling for Dr. Unger’s military service during World War II, the family settled permanently in Kansas City, Missouri. Rowena graduated from Southwest High School in 1956, married in 1959, and earned her first college degree in 1960 from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She then taught for two years in the Garden Grove School District of Orange County, California.
After returning to the Kansas City metro area in 1963, Rowena and her husband became the parents of three sons, twins David and Daniel in 1964, and Richard, in 1966. Following a divorce, she earned a master’s degree in education and English at UMKC and taught for three years at Longview Community College. She then taught for many years at Shawnee Mission South High School, working mostly with seniors and Advanced Placement English classes. Rowena earned a number of awards and recognitions during her tenure at SM South, but she was most proud of helping to write the grant application which, for the second time in a decade, earned the school national recognition as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence from the U.S. Department of Education in 1994. She traveled to Washington D.C., to accept the award. Rowena also enjoyed creative writing, and had several of her poems published. She won first place in the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival Adult Sonnet Contest during its first year of the contest’s existence in 2007 and won again in 2008 and 2009; she frequently served as a judge for the student sonnet contests.
After retiring, she became active in several organizations, including the Beth Shalom Sisterhood, where she served on the board and wrote news articles for the synagogue’s monthly publication. She was also active in the Kansas National Education Association-Retired. She edited the Kansas NEA-R newsletter, The Apple Corps, for several years, and also was a founder of the local Sunflower Chapter of KNEA-R. She was a member of Hadassah, of the American Association of University Women, and an officer of Delta Kappa Gamma. In 2004, Rowena completed the two-year curriculum of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School sponsored by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and she continued tutoring students in her home, in English and for college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT. Her lifelong love of reading found expression in membership in several book clubs.
Rowena dealt with several serious health issues, including lifelong respiratory problems, a bout with esophageal cancer in 2000, and heart disease. She was predeceased by her parents and by her twin brother, who passed away in 1969. She is survived by three sons: David E. Turk, Olathe, Kansas; Daniel W. Turk and wife Denise, Centreville, Virginia; and Richard M. Turk, Eugene, Oregon. She also leaves two grandchildren, Shayna Turk (Kansas) and Adam Turk (Virginia), as well as her sister, Phyllis Elowitz of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Funeral services were to be held Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016, at The Louis Memorial Chapel with burial to follow at Mount Carmel Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, please consider contributions to Harvesters, Safe Home, or a charity of your choice.
Online condolences may be made at www.louismemorialchapel.com.
Arrangements by The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211.