The Fangman Memorial Scholarship Fund was established in 1981 by the North Iowa Area Community College Foundation at the request of family and friends of JoAnn Fangman and her daughter Kathy. JoAnn and Kathy were killed in a motor vehicle accident in January of 1981. The scholarship is designated to a fine arts student living in NIACC’s service area with an academic record showing the potential to succeed.
JoAnn was employed from 1967 through 1975 as the Director of the Student Union located on NIACC’s campus.
In 1976, JoAnn realized her dream teaching career and opened her own cooking school, La Petite Ecole (The Little School) de French Cuisine. JoAnn would spend the next five years teaching over 1,000 students the fine art of French Cuisine with daughter Kathy joining her as her right-hand assistant in 1979.
By 1980, JoAnn had begun to assemble notes for her first cookbook and following the return from her upcoming fourth trip to France was planning to settle down and start writing her cookbook. Unfortunately, due to her untimely death the cookbook would not be written, however; JoAnn and Kathy’s family together with many of the cooking school students compiled her book hoping to keep JoAnn’s wonderful and unique spirit alive. The Fangman family donated all proceeds from the sale of the cookbook to the Fangman Memorial Scholarship.