Sept 26, 1946 - Feb 7, 1999

Ventura resident Donna Carol Steele died at home Friday following a short battle with cancer. She was 52.

Steele was born Sept. 26, 1946, in Boston. She spent most of her childhood in Boston before moving with her family to Claremont, Calif., where she graduated from Claremont High School in 1964.

Steele graduated from Framingham State College in Framingham, Mass., in 1968. She moved to Ventura that same year and met her husband, James Steele, at a party.

In 1969, Donna Steele began working in the Oxnard School District. She worked as an elementary school teacher for 30 years and her most recent assignment was as a sixth-grade teacher at Christa McAuliffe School.

She helped install computers in several classrooms and was instrumental in teaching her peers on how to use them.

Christa McAuliffe School officials plan to name the school's computer lab after Steele.

Steele started the school's accelerated reading program. She was named 1997 Teacher of the Year at McAuliffe.

"Just about everything she did centered around kids and helping her colleagues," James Steele said. "I understand she was a mentor to many of the younger teachers."

In her free time, Donna Steele enjoyed traveling with her husband. The couple toured the South Pacific, Australia and Europe.

James Steele said his wife had a lifelong passion for teaching and learning and was the type of person who was always willing to help.

"She will be greatly missed," he said.

Steele was preceded in death by her parents, Gerald and Frances Harwood.

In addition to her husband, Steele is survived by a daughter, Verna Steele of Ventura; a son, Robert Steele of Ventura; two brothers, Frank Harwood of Ojai and Gerald Harwood of Crescent City, and a sister, Lisa Kupusic of Ventura.

A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the McAuliffe School library in Oxnard so children's reading books can be purchased in Steele's name.