Soon after graduating, she did missionary work in China and Japan, where she taught English. In 1967, she and her family moved to Hawai'i where she went to work with the Hawai'i English Program Development Team, now known as the Curriculum Research and Development Group.

The CRDG is a research unit of the University of Hawai'i's College of Education and it designs and develops instructional materials for students and teachers from kindergarten to the 12th grade. For nearly 20 years, Kleinjans served as the group's managing editor.

Donald Young, CRDG's director, said: "She had a big influence here because she basically taught everybody how to become better writers. She would take our work in the raw and turn it into particularly high-quality publications."

Kleinjans served as a judge in the State Spelling Bee. She was also on the state Ethics Commission, which she chaired in the early 1980s.

Brian Kleinjans said his mother's outlook "was like 'How can we improve this? How can we make that better?' " As an example of that, he said, she wanted donations in her memory to be made to an organization that helps orphans in Cambodia.

Edith Kleinjans is survived by her sons, Brian, David and John; daughters, Monica Guckenheimer and Connie; sister, Miriam De Jongh; and nine grandchildren.

A memorial celebration will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at Castle Memorial Hall, University of Hawai'i.

Donations may be made to The Sharing Foundation, P.O. Box 399, Woolwich, ME 04579.