Joan Targ

Joan Fischer Targ (1938 — June 2, 1998) was a pioneer in computing education. She was the older sister of chess champion Bobby Fischer.

Early years

Born in Moscow, her mother, Regina Wender, was a naturalized American citizen of German Jewish [ [http://foi.missouri.edu/federalfoia/fbiwatched.html FBI watched chess genius and family. Fischer's mother suspected as spy] November 18, 2002] descent, born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Regina spoke seven languages fluently and was a teacher, registered nurse and eventually physician. [ [http://www.chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=3433 Schach Nachrichten] in German ] Her first husband was Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist. The couple married in 1933 in Moscow, U.S.S.R., where Regina was studying medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute. Since Wender was Jewish, she left Europe, separating from her husband, and raising her children on her own, at one point living in a shelter for single mothers. Around 1948, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Regina worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse. They lived above in an apartment above a candy store. In 1949, the young Joan bought a chess set in the candy store, and her younger brother Bobby Fischer, aged 6, became so obsessed with it that their mother even took him to a psychiatrist about it. ["Anything to Win"]

Adulthood

Targ lived in Palo Alto CA, acquiring a Masters degree in education at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont.

She founded a number of innovative programs to study the teaching of computer literacy, including programs in the Palo Alto Unified School District, as well as the Institute of Microcomputing in Education at Stanford University.

Her educational techniques included the creation of systems whereby a student, trained by peers in a basic course in computer programming, would then tutor the next students.

She was part of a very accomplished family: husband Russell, daughter Elisabeth, son Alex, brother Bobby Fischer.

Targ died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 60.

Notes

References

* [http://www.dmv.demon.nl/Documents/joan_fischer_targ.htm Obituary]
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title=The Almanac: Joan Fischer Targ Obituary | date=1998-06-10 |accessdate=2007-03-14
* "Anything to Win: The Mad Genius of Bobby Fischer", television documentary, produced by Frank Sinton and Anthony Storm