Johanna "Jane" Ising (née Ehmer; February 2, 1902 - February 2, 2012) was an economics professor at Bradley University and wife of the physics professor Ernst Ising. She was born in Berlin, Germany and raised as a Lutheran. She earned a PhD in economics from the University of Berlin in 1926. She married Ernst Ising (May 10 1900 — May 11 1998), a German Jew, on December 23, 1930. During WWII they lived in Luxembourg under German occupation and there she gave birth to her only child, Tom, on September 9, 1939. Ernest worked in forced labor for the Germans during that time. In the 1940s, she and her family immigrated to the United States to live in the South and Midwest before settling in Peoria, Illinois, where she lived near the Bradley campus. Jane was known for her love, dedication, and community generosity - honored for having been a founding member of Planned Parenthood in Illinois. The Ising Youth Development Fund was set up in order to further her passionate support for education and youth programming. On February 2, 2012, Ising died in a nursing home on her 110th birthday. She lived for years at the Applewood Center in Matteson, Illinois and attributed her longevity to years of study, moderation and daily exercise. She had also eaten one square of chocolate daily.
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