Barbara Ann (Wise) Pavlovic

Barbara Ann (Wise) Pavlovic, 97, of Morgantown, passed away Friday, November 28, 2025, with her family by her side. She was born on June 18, 1928, in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of the late Elias Paul Wise and Helen (Stewart) Wise.

Barbara was educated in the public schools of Maple Heights, Ohio. As a teenager, Barbara developed her sewing skills that she would later use to make shirts and dresses for her growing family. After graduating from Maple Heights High School in 1946, she attended Oberlin College. In 1947, she withdrew from college to enter the work force and to marry Arthur Pavlovic.

Barb and Art, during their first years together, moved extensively pursuing employment and Arthurs’s graduate degrees. In 1959, they moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, with their four children where Barb joined the League of Women Voters and became very active in that organization. She was engaged with the Parent Teacher Association and Campus Club at WVU. Her love of nature led her to be active in one of the local Girl Scout troops. She took the Girl Scouts on hikes and camping trips into the forests and mountains of West Virginia that she dearly loved. She was very good at handicrafts which brought her to quilting and basket weaving. She was instrumental in establishing the quilt show during the WVU Arts and Crafts Festival.

Barbara enjoyed traveling both in the US and overseas. Language was never a problem no matter what country she visited. Barbara was known for her adventurous spirit and courage. In 1967 she moved to France with three school age children and set up housing until Arthur arrived for their first sabbatical leave from WVU. Based on a two week canoe camping trip to Algonquin Provincial Park in 1972, she wrote a book about that family adventure.

Soon after moving to Morgantown, Barbara and Arthur bought a house in South Park. It was an old house that needed a bit of TLC. Barb and Art got right into it painting and wallpapering and doing together whatever was needed to make it work for the family. This was the center of Barbara’s world. This was where she raised the children and was the center of organizing many camping trips both near and far. Barbara and Art hosted many dinner parties, foreign exchange students and visiting lecturers to the University. Barb loved nothing better than cooking for a host of people. Famous family recipes included Barb’s chocolate sauce, couscous, fondue, pork roast with sauerkraut and dumplings, poppyseed torte and chocolate chip cookies. Many a tale was told around the dinner table and the kitchen was the favorite hangout for children and friends. That house was synonymous with Barb’s identity and it broke her heart when she had to leave the place of so many happy memories.

In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her loving husband, Arthur Stephen Pavlovic; and her older sisters, Mary Elizabeth Wise in 2015 and Gloria Bylund in 2017 and twin brother David Wise in 2022.

She is survived by four children: son Karl and wife Kris of Gaithersburg, MD; son Stephen of Morgantown; son Noel and wife Sarah of Chesterton, IN; and daughter Paula Stanley and husband Philip of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia as well as her twin brother’s widow, Jeanne Wise of Ohio. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and eight great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

The family will plan a memorial service later in the year which will be shared with friends online and in the Dominion Post.

Memorial donations may be given to The Nature Conservancy or the Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council.

Hastings Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements and online condolences may be made to the family at www.hastingsfuneralhome.com.