My wife, Joy Smith, who has died aged 90, helped shape the lives of not only our five children, but also many in infant and junior schools in London, Suffolk and Hampshire. When not in the classroom, she was involved in many voluntary activities.

Born in Muswell Hill, north London, Joy was the daughter of Elsie (nee Taylor) and Maurice Garner, a chartered accountant who taught her double-entry bookkeeping for her pocket money. Wartime evacuation took the family to Shropshire, and on their return in 1946 Joy went to Hornsey high school for girls, where she became head girl.

At Manchester University (1949-53) she graduated in mathematics and physics, and qualified as a teacher, her first post being in Hackney, east London, for three years. She and I had met through the Christian Union at Manchester, and after marrying in 1956 we moved to Ipswich, in Suffolk, where our first four children were born. Joy then taught briefly in two infant schools in the town.

In 1970 the family relocated to Dibden Purlieu, Hampshire, where again Joy taught briefly before having our fifth child. She did voluntary work with disabled children, refurbished sewing machines for developing countries and taught in Sunday school. Her final decade of teaching (1978-88) was undertaken in schools between Southampton Water and the New Forest.

Seeing spinners at work at the folk museum at Cregneash on the Isle of Man in 1981 encouraged Joy to spin and dye her own wool. She designed and knitted garments for family, friends, Oxfam and the Baby Bundles charity.

On retirement in 1991 we moved to Norfolk to volunteer at the Pickenham Centre, a Christian educational establishment near Swaffham. Joy served as a governor of the village school, helping out in various capacities, and was an active member of the Mid-Norfolk Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and the WRVS, delivering meals on wheels.

In 2001 we returned to urban life in Derby, and Joy made new friends through Scottish country dancing. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2010 and her Oxfam blanket squares began to assume strange geometric shapes; in 2019 she went into a care home. Her warm smile was one of the last things to leave her.

Our son Mark died in 2019. She is survived by me, our children Hilary, Chris, Jenny and Jackie, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.