A memorial service for retired Pierce College Geography professor will take place tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Prince of Peace Episcopal Church.
Celeste Kostanick died in her sleep at her Woodland Hills home Wednesday, Feb. 1. She was 90 years old.
“She very much enjoyed her years teaching… her students apparently enjoyed her just as much,” said Kostanick’s daughter in law, Barbara Kostanick, in a letter she wrote to the professor’s friends and colleagues.
Kostanick graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and continued to study in Clark University in Massachusetts, where she earned her master’s degree.
At Clark University, she met Louis Kostanick, a fellow geographer who later became her husband.
When Louis received a job at University of California, Los Angeles, in 1950, Kostanick moved to Los Angeles, and became a Geography professor at Pierce College.
Kostanick devoted her life to her consistent interest in science and nature.
“She knew so much about Geography,” said Marjorie Hoskinson, Pierce vice chair of English department. “Her subject was her life. I learned so much from her.”