GAMBIER – Hope Diana Woodward-Ginther, 21, of Gambier, was killed on Dec. 2, 2020, in an automobile collision near Gambier.
Hope was born in Columbus on July 2, 1999, and was a 2017 graduate of Mount Vernon High School and the Knox County Career Center Teacher Academy program. She attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Hope always wanted to be a teacher and took a gap year between high school and college to teach first-, second- and third grade at St. John’s Episcopal School in Puerto Cortés, Honduras, for the 2017–18 academic year. She also taught preschool and was an employee of North Broadway Children’s Center in Columbus. Hope deeply cared for each of her students and made it her mission to teach beyond the curriculum and to model empathy and compassion for all of the children. Her radiant presence is profoundly missed by everyone who ever met her.
Hope’s interests included music, travel, pets and taking care of children. She was an avid softball player and art enthusiast.
She is survived by her parents, April and Kent Woodward-Ginther, of Gambier; and her brother and best friend Rhen Woodward-Ginther, of Nelsonville. She is also survived by her paternal grandfather, Jeffrey Ginther of Columbus; her maternal grandfather, Howard Woodward of Sebring, Florida; and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Hope was preceded in death by her grandmothers, Diana Woodward and Norma Ginther.
O'Shaughnessy Funeral Home of Columbus handled funeral arrangements.
There will be a celebration of Hope’s life on her birthday, July 2, at 11 a.m. at the Brown Family Environmental Center, 9781 Laymon Road in Gambier. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to the Hope Woodward-Ginther and Norma Ginther Helping Hands Fund, courtesy of North Broadway Methodist Church in Columbus (charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-hope-woodward-ginther-and-norma-ginther-helping-hands-fund).
Submitted by April and Kent Woodward-Ginther
