Obituary of Mona L. Klingler

Mona Klingler died peacefully on April 16, 2018 at her home of 25 years in Stow, Ohio. She was born on December 3, 1956 in Barberton, Ohio.

After a joyous, tomboyish childhood with many neighborhood friends on the west side of Barberton, Ohio, Mona graduated from Barberton High School in 1975 and went to work in the draperies department at Sears, Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio.  There she met her husband Tom, the roving security guard who ensured zero theft in her department.

Mona married Tom in 1981, received her Master's Degree in Audiology from the University of Akron the same year, and, after a clinical fellowship year at the Cleveland Ohio VA Hospital, started work at the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center.  After several years in Cleveland, she took a local position at the Litchfield Rehabilitation Center in Akron.  From there, in 1985, she accepted a faculty position in the Audiology Department at The University of Akron, retiring after 30 years in 2015.  Along the way, she received her Clinical Doctorate in Audiology from A.T. Still University, and achieved the rank of tenured associate professor at Akron.  While at the University of Akron, she helped countless patients and inspired countless graduate students with her clinical instruction and her masterful classroom teaching.  

Nearly every Friday for 29 years, she volunteered as the staff audiologist at the Akron Craniofacial Center, one of the accomplishments that brought her the most satisfaction.  She loved the kids at the center and worked there long enough to see some of them bring in their own kids for her help.  She hauled countless graduate students from the university to Friday clinic to give them invaluable clinical experience.

In the middle of her career, Mona cared for her widowed mother single-handedly for 14 years while working full time, running a household, and having two wonderful children, Jacob and Emily, the pride of her life.  Emily and Jacob now must be content with their endless memories of a wonderful mom who was loving, dedicated, passionately supportive, and funny as a stitch.  To this day, they continue to discover that their special “Mom vocabulary”  words like “rizzer” and “boover” don’t appear in the dictionary.

Besides being a wonderful clinician, teacher, and mother, Mona was also a talented musician.  Learning from her father, she enjoyed life-long mastery of the piano, making brief diversions to the French horn in high school, and also the guitar, which she combined with her soprano voice to enchant Tom.  She enjoyed many years of singing with the local Sto-Notes community choir, especially when they delivered their annual Christmas season set of performances that she called “the nursing home circuit.”

In her brief retirement, she finally got to seriously pursue her love of painting and studied, painted, and volunteered at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.  The home she leaves behind is decorated with her stitchery from the 1980's, and her award-winning watercolors of the past several years.

Mona’s battle with cancer began in 2008 with stage three breast cancer, followed by surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy;  later lymphedema in 2010;  and a stroke in 2012.   Following the onset of severe bone pain shortly after a 35th wedding anniversary trip to Myrtle Beach, she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer in late 2016.  Another round of radiation and chemotherapy provided enough relief that she was able to keep painting and go camping, another one of her loves.  Esophageal problems from the cancer resulted in a terrible series of battles from October 2017 until her death.   At the end of a ten-day stay in the Cleveland Clinic, she made the decision to come home.  She sighed with relief when she got home and enjoyed the company of family and friends, and especially the support of Emily, Jacob, and Tom for her final five days of life.  She died peacefully with all three at her side on Monday morning, April 16, 2018.

Mona was preceded in death by her father and mother, Tom and Eva Shank. She is survived by husband Tom, daughter Emily, son Jacob, sister Sue Shank Tabler, brothers and sisters-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews.

Rather than giving to a specific cause or charity, Mona asks that, if you knew her love, caring, warmth and humor, please pay it forward in her honor. 

Visitation will be held from 5-8 PM on Monday April 23 at the Redmon Funeral Home in Stow with a brief service at 8 PM.