Virginia S. “Ginny” Wiley, praised for her many years of dedicated volunteer work at the H. F. Epstein Hebrew Academy and for her work with new Americans from the former Soviet Union, died of lung cancer on Monday, May 28, 2007. She was 66.

Mrs. Wiley was born Feb. 22, 1941 in Beaumont, Texas. She earned a degree in English literature from Lamar University in 1961.

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In Texas, she was a social worker who worked for the Social Services Agency. She moved to St. Louis in 1963.

Mrs. Wiley volunteered at the Veterans Administration Hospital in St. Louis and taught religious school at Congregation B’nai El, where she was an active member of the Temple Sisterhood. She was also an active member of the St. Louis Chapter of NA’AMAT USA.

In remarks offered at Mrs. Wiley’s funeral service at the New Mount Sinai Cemetery last week, longtime colleague and friend Gayle Chazen said, “Miss Ginny, as we fondly called her, began her illustrious career running the Epstein Academy’s English as a second language (ESL) program. In the 1980s, there was a large influx of Russian Jewish immigrants who came to St. Louis, and many of their children found their way to the Epstein Hebrew Academy. Judy Pearlstone, a dear friend of Ginny’s convinced (Head of School) Rabbi Joseph Rischall, who was the principal at the time, that Ginny would be the perfect teacher for this project….Before you knew it, she had a classroom of students eagerly ready to learn.

“And learn they did,” Chazen continued. “Slowly, but surely these shy, scared little kids became confident students who always had Miss Ginny behind them….She nurtured them, gave them a strong sense of self-worth and watched proudly as they easily were absorbed into the regular classrooms.”

Chazen added that Mrs. Wiley planned and put on a party for one of her students when he became a bar mitzvah at age 13. “She pulled out all the stops and threw quite the shindig. She and I would stand in the school kitchen for hours making mounds of egg salad, tuna salad and fruit salad…I remember vividly the parents of these children coming over to Ginny with tears in their eyes, thanking her over and over for all her caring and kindness.”

After the flow of Russian Jewish immigrants subsided, Mrs. Wiley turned her attention to building up the computer program at Epstein. Said Mrs. Chazen, “Computer classes became an actual part of the curriculum and students became experts at doing research papers, making their own brochures and doing all sorts of fancy reports. Today there are over 40 computers in the lab and thousands of programs and games, thanks to the immense generosity of Don and Ginny Wiley,” Chazen said.

“Ginny Wiley was an extraordinary person,” Chazen added. “Over the years she forged friendships that many of us will cherish for a lifetime and most importantly, she had a profound impact on the students she taught.”

Survivors include her husband, Don Wiley; a son, Don (Lee) Wiley, Jr., a grandson, Alexander Wiley and a sister, Barbara (Ron) Medford.

Rabbi Mark L. Shook of Temple Israel officiated at the funeral services at New Mount Sinai Cemetery last Sunday. Contributions in memory of Mrs. Wiley may be to charities of the donor’s choice.