Joyce Wetherald was born in 1926 and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1943 she received the Rhode Island Regional Scholarship to Pembroke College, where she studied English. Her father was an importer of jewelry, and his business had been impacted dramatically by the stock market crash of 1929. Her gratitude for the opportunity to go to college made her anxious to give back to Brown University. During her time at Brown she was class president, and after her graduation she worked on the Rhode Island Regional Scholarship Committee. She was the first chairman of the Student/Alumni Relations Committee after the Pembroke-Brown Merger in 1971, and was elected to the Brown Corporation in the mid-1970s. At the time of her 1992 interview, Wetherald remained actively involved in both her alumnae class of 1947 and the Brown Corporation.