Frederick News Post Memoriams
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She took ill on Monday, September 14 and died ten days later on September 24, 2020 of an unknown cause. She was born March 19, 1946.
Jane's brilliance was not scintillating like a sparkler, but she had an intellect that was diamond-hard in its tenacity. In the mid 1970s when she was studying at the U. of Md. other chemistry majors were quivering with fear about the required course in Physical Chemistry because of the difficult math needed. Jane just breezed right through it. One of the others went on to graduate as an English major.
She moved to Brunswick with her friend Ellis (the English major) in 1980 to be near her new job in cancer research at Fort Detrick. In 1985 she pursued an opportunity to work and study in Houston, Texas. When she returned to Maryland she came with a Phd. in molecular biology.
Always active, she played on a women's softball team for some years. Next came hang gliding -- a brief interlude that resulted in an injury that was so painful she actually mentioned it. She was ever a stoic. After that was rock climbing. Once while climbing a vertical wall she lost her grip and fell until her safety rope took hold. A fellow climber said she was hanging about 30 feet above some broken rocks, her harness held her upside down in the air and she was laughing.
Then came the dogs. First there was Groundhog from one of her baseball team; then came Bonzo -- around the time of president Reagan; then Zhou-Zhou (Jo-Jo) who was strongly attached to Jane but disliked everyone else. Sam was like that too. In the early 2000s she started seriously getting into dog training and various competitions with Fargo, the first husky. Captain Jack, the next husky, won some prestigious awards for agility.
Jane's tenacity (mentioned above) showed itself again when she wanted to clear a large space of weeds and small trees for a dog exercise field. We asked a contractor for an estimate but he said he didn't have the necessary heavy equipment to handle it. Jane then took her machete (with which she was quite adept) and in a few weeks cleared the area and then put up a steel fence with big gates. Tenacity, the quiet brilliance.
Her household, who miss her greatly, are Tango, Lexi, Nicklas, and Ellis who said, "Jane gave me the best 43 years of my life."
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