Joan Waring Prado

Joan Marie (Waring) Prado, 77, of Gainesville, Florida, passed away on August 28, 2026. She was born October 12, 1948, in Buffalo, New York, to Marguerite and Joseph Waring.

Joan earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Education from Rosary Hill College and a Master of Arts in Spanish Language, Literature and Education from Middlebury College. She traveled during her collegiate studies to Columbia, Puerto Rico and Spain. The language she studied became the bridge to the work that defined her life.

She met Santiago Prado at a party in South Florida, introduced by a mutual friend. They married in 1977 and settled in Gainesville, where they raised their daughters and built a life of 48 years together. The two shared a love of travel that took them across the western states and through many of the country’s national parks, north to Alaska, and explorations through the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Europe.

A member of Holy Faith Catholic Church since 1978, she formed lasting friendships within the parish and poured herself into the causes she loved with local migrant education and fundraising sponsorships for students at the sister parish in Guatemala. This passion was evident in her career where she worked for 35 years at the Department of Labor as a wage compliance specialist, where her deep compassion found its purpose in advocating for migrant workers.

She was creative and made cards, calendars, and intricate scrapbooks. She understood what a handwritten letter meant to the person who opened it and there are family and friends around the country with shoeboxes full of her work. She also loved to crochet and made many blankets for family, friends and for donations to the VA hospital. She had a lifelong thirst for knowledge and the bookshelves to prove it, and she passed her love of reading on to her grandchildren.

Joan was preceded in death by her parents, Marguerite and Joseph Waring, and her brother, Jim.

She is survived by her loving husband of 48 years, Santiago Prado; her sister, Ann (Bruce) Jones; her brothers, Michaels (Dee) Waring and Joseph Waring; her daughters, Maria (Ryan) Poulsen and Carolyn (Eric) Watson; and her grandchildren, Adriana and Ethan Poulsen and Nichole (Phil Hajal) Pedrick.

Services

Visitation will be held at Forest Meadows Funeral Home on Friday, September 4, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Holy Faith Catholic Church on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 1:00 p.m., with a reception to follow from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Burial will take place at St. Madeleine Catholic Church Cemetery.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Forest Meadows Funeral Home 725 NW 23rd  Ave Gainesville FL 32609