Janet F. Orndorff passed away at her home on Thursday, March 28, 2013, after courageously battling breast cancer.
Janet was born in St. Johns, Michigan on December 9, 1944, to Loree and Myrtle Findlay. She was raised on a small farm and received her early education in a one-room schoolhouse.
From the beginning, Janet was a curious youth who yearned to learn. Her siblings described her as studious, self-disciplined and thoughtful who often played the role of peacemaker between her squabbling brother and sister. She had a special relationship with her Grandma Annie who took her under her wing, teaching her many things, including the importance of being kind to others.
Janet's strong work ethic and determination came in large part from her father who persevered serious health problems and worked two jobs for much of his life to support his family and to enable his four children to attend college.
It was in the one-room schoolhouse where Janet began her lifelong interest in teaching. She put it this way, "even at a fairly young age, I was naturally drawn to helping the younger children at my school. I guess that was the beginning of a lifelong interest in doing whatever I could to help the children around me."
Janet pursued her love for teaching and graduated with a B.A. in Elementary Education with honors from Michigan State. She then received her Master's in Reading Instruction from Michigan State.
It was Janet's warmth, kindness and compassion combined with her bright intellect that attracted Owen Orndorff to his Spartan blind date. Fortuitously for Owen, Janet forgot her purse on their first date which Owen leveraged for another date. To this day, their three children marvel at how Owen managed to land Janet's hand in marriage.
In August 1968 Janet and Owen became lifelong partners marrying right before Owen entered military service. In 1969, their first child Lori was born. Two years later, Ben came. The family was blessed again with the birth of their third child, Will, in 1979.
After leaving military service, Owen finished law school at Northwestern University. Owen was focused on legal positions in Chicago, but Janet pulled from the trash a crumpled up legal opportunity with Boise Cascade in Boise. She urged Owen to look into it. The two came to Boise and immediately fell in love with the area. Owen accepted the position and they took their young family on an adventure, arriving in Boise in the fall of 1974.
Janet began teaching in the Boise School District in 1975 and left the formal teaching ranks in 1979. Although she no longer received a paycheck for teaching, her devotion to public education was just beginning.
Janet's public service in the Boise School District started at Highlands Elementary in classrooms, fundraisers and the school carnival. Her service continued to North Junior High as the Chairman of its 50th Anniversary celebration and then broadened to the district level including co-coordinating the successful 1988 bond. She started her service as a Boise School District Trustee in 1990 and served in that position until her death.
During her 23 year tenure on the Board, she regularly lobbied and testified before the legislature on behalf of public education, she spearheaded the effort to rewrite the District's policy manual in a comprehensive manner that reflected our community's values, she advocated for the preservation and renovation of Boise High School and she spent many days traveling around the country for the "Light House Project," a program for training school board trustees. She also traveled around the state spreading her Light House training to other Idaho school board trustees.
Janet served on the State Professional Standards Commission and was an active member and served as President of the Idaho School Boards Association. Last year, she provided research and data analysis to help defeat the Students Come First laws, a name Janet thought to be a misnomer since one particularly troubling aspect of the laws removed teachers from the classroom and increased classroom sizes.
One of her most precious undertakings began in 1991. In order to make way for a new elementary school, the Boise School District was faced with the difficult decision of what to do with the Bown House, a historic 1879 home that was on the District's property where Riverside Elementary was to be built. It appeared the District had no choice but to demolish or move the Bown House. Janet, some fellow Trustees, the Idaho Historic Preservation Council and others were successful in saving the Bown House, at its original location.
Janet was one of the founding board members of the Bown House Heritage Program and was instrumental in getting the program off the ground by working on grants, organizing fundraisers to restore the house and organizing a team effort for the development of an innovative heritage education program for fourth grade field trips and community visits. She served as a docent at the Bown House since it opened for field trips in 1995. On these field trips local fourth graders visit the Bown House for over two hours and learn first-hand what it was like to live in the 1880's.
The Bown House has received many awards, including the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that Janet and others accepted on behalf of the program in Washington D.C.
Janet was an Assistance League of Boise (ALB) member for 33 years. She held many leadership positions but some of her favorite volunteer hours were spent teaching History in a Suitcase (a fourth grade history program that was the predecessor to the Bown House), Shopping Ala Carte (a nursing home project) and the ALB Thrift Shop. She also played a big role in ALB obtaining the Glenwood property that now houses the ALB Thrift Shop and Philanthropic Center.
Janet was a big believer in reading to children from birth and the importance of putting books in their hands. In 2000, she was the initiator and Project Director of "Operation My Own Book," a Delta Kappa Gamma program that annually supplies a new book to over 3,000 needy students in Boise, Kuna, and Meridian School Districts through the ALB Operation School Bell program. Since inception, the program has delivered books to over 20,000 children.
Janet was also an active board member for the Capitol Youth Soccer Association from 1980 to 1985 and was instrumental in starting the High School Soccer Varsity and Intramural (Rush Select) programs that are enjoyed by many high school soccer players today.
Her volunteer efforts were recognized with many awards over the years including the JC Penny Golden Rule Award, the Boise Education Association Friend of Education Award and the Girl Scout's Women of Today and Tomorrow Award. But her greatest reward was the joy she had knowing that her efforts made the lives of our children better, happier, more productive and more capable of becoming wonderful role models for the next generation. She was inspired by these words: "You each have the power to change the lives of those around you. You can motivate and inspire. You can empower those with whom you work to accomplish things that seem impossible." Janet's version of a quote from Getting Started by Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour and Rebecca Du Four.
One of Janet's friends described Janet the best: "Besides the obvious: a devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother, Janet was highly intelligent, humble to a fault, honest to a fault, an educator and education proponent, a volunteer for the betterment of the community and the welfare and education of children, a leader of innovative ideas, a person who walked her talk, a fact finder and problem solver, and compassionate to the needs of all."
Janet's talents however were much broader than working tirelessly to improve the public education system. Not only did she manage the family household in Boise, she also took care of the family's house on their cattle ranch in the Owyhee Mountains and the "duck shack", a recent acquisition by her sons on the Snake River.
Janet organized many family summer vacations including trips to Sun River, McCall, and the Washington coast. She enjoyed sharing numerous fishing and hunting expeditions across Idaho, Montana, Costa Rica, and South Dakota. She also attended innumerable baseball, basketball, football and soccer games, track, cross country and wrestling meets, locally and across the West. One of the best things about Janet was her willingness to do anything her husband, kids and grandkids were doing, just to be with them.
As Janet recently reflected on her life, she listed among her highest achievements having three wonderful children and nine talented and loving grandchildren. Janet's relationship with her grandchildren was particularly special. The family home has an upstairs with a boys' room, a girls' room, and a playroom. Each room is incredibly decorated and full of books, toys, and other things children love to play with. Janet hosted countless sleepovers, many times with all of her grandchildren. Their time with "GJ" or Grandma Jan as she was affectionately called was very special and will never be forgotten. Some of her grandchildren's favorite memories will be her picking them up from school, feeding them delicious after-school snacks, reading to them, hosting shopping trips, planting gardens with them, taking out-of-town trips with them, baking cakes for them, playing with them, teaching them what is right and wrong, teaching them to work hard in school and life and showing them how to love deeply.
To her children, she was a kind, smart, reliable, helpful, funny, patient mother who showed her unconditional love many times. To her husband, she was a beautiful, loyal, hard-working wife. She made dinner, kept house, and loved him more than anyone can love. She was a fun-loving, positive person who drew others into her. He didn't like sharing her, but knew that he would have to, for that was who she was: a champion for the betterment of her community and family. That is how we will remember her and she is forever in our hearts and memories as such. Goodbye Mom, Grandma and Wife. We love you and miss you so much.
Janet is survived by her husband of 44 years, Owen; their three children, Lori Dingel (Mike), Ben (Kimberly) and Will (Kristen); and nine grandchildren, Jake, Audrey, Elle, John, Katelyn, Abbie, Sam, Caroline and her newborn granddaughter, Josephine Janet; her siblings, Cathy (Jim) Carroll, Jack (Claire) Findlay and Jean (Dennis) Tuttle; sisters-in-law, Karen (John) Vehlow and Ruth (Larry) Smith; and many nieces and nephews.
The family gives special thanks to the staff at St. Luke's Hospital and MSTI for all of their care and support of our dear Janet.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the Cathedral of the Rockies, 717 N 11th St., Boise, Idaho. A reception will follow at Crane Creek Country Club, 500 W. Curling Dr., Boise, Idaho.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Boise Public Schools Education Foundation, www.boiseschoolsfoundation.com, or a charity of their choice.
Published in Idaho Statesman from April 1 to April 2, 2013
Janet was born in St. Johns, Michigan on December 9, 1944, to Loree and Myrtle Findlay. She was raised on a small farm and received her early education in a one-room schoolhouse.
From the beginning, Janet was a curious youth who yearned to learn. Her siblings described her as studious, self-disciplined and thoughtful who often played the role of peacemaker between her squabbling brother and sister. She had a special relationship with her Grandma Annie who took her under her wing, teaching her many things, including the importance of being kind to others.
Janet's strong work ethic and determination came in large part from her father who persevered serious health problems and worked two jobs for much of his life to support his family and to enable his four children to attend college.
It was in the one-room schoolhouse where Janet began her lifelong interest in teaching. She put it this way, "even at a fairly young age, I was naturally drawn to helping the younger children at my school. I guess that was the beginning of a lifelong interest in doing whatever I could to help the children around me."
Janet pursued her love for teaching and graduated with a B.A. in Elementary Education with honors from Michigan State. She then received her Master's in Reading Instruction from Michigan State.
It was Janet's warmth, kindness and compassion combined with her bright intellect that attracted Owen Orndorff to his Spartan blind date. Fortuitously for Owen, Janet forgot her purse on their first date which Owen leveraged for another date. To this day, their three children marvel at how Owen managed to land Janet's hand in marriage.
In August 1968 Janet and Owen became lifelong partners marrying right before Owen entered military service. In 1969, their first child Lori was born. Two years later, Ben came. The family was blessed again with the birth of their third child, Will, in 1979.
After leaving military service, Owen finished law school at Northwestern University. Owen was focused on legal positions in Chicago, but Janet pulled from the trash a crumpled up legal opportunity with Boise Cascade in Boise. She urged Owen to look into it. The two came to Boise and immediately fell in love with the area. Owen accepted the position and they took their young family on an adventure, arriving in Boise in the fall of 1974.
Janet began teaching in the Boise School District in 1975 and left the formal teaching ranks in 1979. Although she no longer received a paycheck for teaching, her devotion to public education was just beginning.
Janet's public service in the Boise School District started at Highlands Elementary in classrooms, fundraisers and the school carnival. Her service continued to North Junior High as the Chairman of its 50th Anniversary celebration and then broadened to the district level including co-coordinating the successful 1988 bond. She started her service as a Boise School District Trustee in 1990 and served in that position until her death.
During her 23 year tenure on the Board, she regularly lobbied and testified before the legislature on behalf of public education, she spearheaded the effort to rewrite the District's policy manual in a comprehensive manner that reflected our community's values, she advocated for the preservation and renovation of Boise High School and she spent many days traveling around the country for the "Light House Project," a program for training school board trustees. She also traveled around the state spreading her Light House training to other Idaho school board trustees.
Janet served on the State Professional Standards Commission and was an active member and served as President of the Idaho School Boards Association. Last year, she provided research and data analysis to help defeat the Students Come First laws, a name Janet thought to be a misnomer since one particularly troubling aspect of the laws removed teachers from the classroom and increased classroom sizes.
One of her most precious undertakings began in 1991. In order to make way for a new elementary school, the Boise School District was faced with the difficult decision of what to do with the Bown House, a historic 1879 home that was on the District's property where Riverside Elementary was to be built. It appeared the District had no choice but to demolish or move the Bown House. Janet, some fellow Trustees, the Idaho Historic Preservation Council and others were successful in saving the Bown House, at its original location.
Janet was one of the founding board members of the Bown House Heritage Program and was instrumental in getting the program off the ground by working on grants, organizing fundraisers to restore the house and organizing a team effort for the development of an innovative heritage education program for fourth grade field trips and community visits. She served as a docent at the Bown House since it opened for field trips in 1995. On these field trips local fourth graders visit the Bown House for over two hours and learn first-hand what it was like to live in the 1880's.
The Bown House has received many awards, including the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that Janet and others accepted on behalf of the program in Washington D.C.
Janet was an Assistance League of Boise (ALB) member for 33 years. She held many leadership positions but some of her favorite volunteer hours were spent teaching History in a Suitcase (a fourth grade history program that was the predecessor to the Bown House), Shopping Ala Carte (a nursing home project) and the ALB Thrift Shop. She also played a big role in ALB obtaining the Glenwood property that now houses the ALB Thrift Shop and Philanthropic Center.
Janet was a big believer in reading to children from birth and the importance of putting books in their hands. In 2000, she was the initiator and Project Director of "Operation My Own Book," a Delta Kappa Gamma program that annually supplies a new book to over 3,000 needy students in Boise, Kuna, and Meridian School Districts through the ALB Operation School Bell program. Since inception, the program has delivered books to over 20,000 children.
Janet was also an active board member for the Capitol Youth Soccer Association from 1980 to 1985 and was instrumental in starting the High School Soccer Varsity and Intramural (Rush Select) programs that are enjoyed by many high school soccer players today.
Her volunteer efforts were recognized with many awards over the years including the JC Penny Golden Rule Award, the Boise Education Association Friend of Education Award and the Girl Scout's Women of Today and Tomorrow Award. But her greatest reward was the joy she had knowing that her efforts made the lives of our children better, happier, more productive and more capable of becoming wonderful role models for the next generation. She was inspired by these words: "You each have the power to change the lives of those around you. You can motivate and inspire. You can empower those with whom you work to accomplish things that seem impossible." Janet's version of a quote from Getting Started by Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour and Rebecca Du Four.
One of Janet's friends described Janet the best: "Besides the obvious: a devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother, Janet was highly intelligent, humble to a fault, honest to a fault, an educator and education proponent, a volunteer for the betterment of the community and the welfare and education of children, a leader of innovative ideas, a person who walked her talk, a fact finder and problem solver, and compassionate to the needs of all."
Janet's talents however were much broader than working tirelessly to improve the public education system. Not only did she manage the family household in Boise, she also took care of the family's house on their cattle ranch in the Owyhee Mountains and the "duck shack", a recent acquisition by her sons on the Snake River.
Janet organized many family summer vacations including trips to Sun River, McCall, and the Washington coast. She enjoyed sharing numerous fishing and hunting expeditions across Idaho, Montana, Costa Rica, and South Dakota. She also attended innumerable baseball, basketball, football and soccer games, track, cross country and wrestling meets, locally and across the West. One of the best things about Janet was her willingness to do anything her husband, kids and grandkids were doing, just to be with them.
As Janet recently reflected on her life, she listed among her highest achievements having three wonderful children and nine talented and loving grandchildren. Janet's relationship with her grandchildren was particularly special. The family home has an upstairs with a boys' room, a girls' room, and a playroom. Each room is incredibly decorated and full of books, toys, and other things children love to play with. Janet hosted countless sleepovers, many times with all of her grandchildren. Their time with "GJ" or Grandma Jan as she was affectionately called was very special and will never be forgotten. Some of her grandchildren's favorite memories will be her picking them up from school, feeding them delicious after-school snacks, reading to them, hosting shopping trips, planting gardens with them, taking out-of-town trips with them, baking cakes for them, playing with them, teaching them what is right and wrong, teaching them to work hard in school and life and showing them how to love deeply.
To her children, she was a kind, smart, reliable, helpful, funny, patient mother who showed her unconditional love many times. To her husband, she was a beautiful, loyal, hard-working wife. She made dinner, kept house, and loved him more than anyone can love. She was a fun-loving, positive person who drew others into her. He didn't like sharing her, but knew that he would have to, for that was who she was: a champion for the betterment of her community and family. That is how we will remember her and she is forever in our hearts and memories as such. Goodbye Mom, Grandma and Wife. We love you and miss you so much.
Janet is survived by her husband of 44 years, Owen; their three children, Lori Dingel (Mike), Ben (Kimberly) and Will (Kristen); and nine grandchildren, Jake, Audrey, Elle, John, Katelyn, Abbie, Sam, Caroline and her newborn granddaughter, Josephine Janet; her siblings, Cathy (Jim) Carroll, Jack (Claire) Findlay and Jean (Dennis) Tuttle; sisters-in-law, Karen (John) Vehlow and Ruth (Larry) Smith; and many nieces and nephews.
The family gives special thanks to the staff at St. Luke's Hospital and MSTI for all of their care and support of our dear Janet.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the Cathedral of the Rockies, 717 N 11th St., Boise, Idaho. A reception will follow at Crane Creek Country Club, 500 W. Curling Dr., Boise, Idaho.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Boise Public Schools Education Foundation, www.boiseschoolsfoundation.com, or a charity of their choice.
Published in Idaho Statesman from April 1 to April 2, 2013
Janet F. Orndorff passed away at her home on Thursday, March 28, 2013, after courageously battling breast cancer.
Janet was born in St. Johns, Michigan on December 9, 1944, to Loree and Myrtle Findlay. She was raised on a small farm and received her early education in a one-room schoolhouse.
From the beginning, Janet was a curious youth who yearned to learn. Her siblings described her as studious, self-disciplined and thoughtful who often played the role of peacemaker between her squabbling brother and sister. She had a special relationship with her Grandma Annie who took her under her wing, teaching her many things, including the importance of being kind to others.
Janet's strong work ethic and determination came in large part from her father who persevered serious health problems and worked two jobs for much of his life to support his family and to enable his four children to attend college.
It was in the one-room schoolhouse where Janet began her lifelong interest in teaching. She put it this way, "even at a fairly young age, I was naturally drawn to helping the younger children at my school. I guess that was the beginning of a lifelong interest in doing whatever I could to help the children around me."
Janet pursued her love for teaching and graduated with a B.A. in Elementary Education with honors from Michigan State. She then received her Master's in Reading Instruction from Michigan State.
It was Janet's warmth, kindness and compassion combined with her bright intellect that attracted Owen Orndorff to his Spartan blind date. Fortuitously for Owen, Janet forgot her purse on their first date which Owen leveraged for another date. To this day, their three children marvel at how Owen managed to land Janet's hand in marriage.
In August 1968 Janet and Owen became lifelong partners marrying right before Owen entered military service. In 1969, their first child Lori was born. Two years later, Ben came. The family was blessed again with the birth of their third child, Will, in 1979.
After leaving military service, Owen finished law school at Northwestern University. Owen was focused on legal positions in Chicago, but Janet pulled from the trash a crumpled up legal opportunity with Boise Cascade in Boise. She urged Owen to look into it. The two came to Boise and immediately fell in love with the area. Owen accepted the position and they took their young family on an adventure, arriving in Boise in the fall of 1974.
Janet began teaching in the Boise School District in 1975 and left the formal teaching ranks in 1979. Although she no longer received a paycheck for teaching, her devotion to public education was just beginning.
Janet's public service in the Boise School District started at Highlands Elementary in classrooms, fundraisers and the school carnival. Her service continued to North Junior High as the Chairman of its 50th Anniversary celebration and then broadened to the district level including co-coordinating the successful 1988 bond. She started her service as a Boise School District Trustee in 1990 and served in that position until her death.
During her 23 year tenure on the Board, she regularly lobbied and testified before the legislature on behalf of public education, she spearheaded the effort to rewrite the District's policy manual in a comprehensive manner that reflected our community's values, she advocated for the preservation and renovation of Boise High School and she spent many days traveling around the country for the "Light House Project," a program for training school board trustees. She also traveled around the state spreading her Light House training to other Idaho school board trustees.
Janet served on the State Professional Standards Commission and was an active member and served as President of the Idaho School Boards Association. Last year, she provided research and data analysis to help defeat the Students Come First laws, a name Janet thought to be a misnomer since one particularly troubling aspect of the laws removed teachers from the classroom and increased classroom sizes.
One of her most precious undertakings began in 1991. In order to make way for a new elementary school, the Boise School District was faced with the difficult decision of what to do with the Bown House, a historic 1879 home that was on the District's property where Riverside Elementary was to be built. It appeared the District had no choice but to demolish or move the Bown House. Janet, some fellow Trustees, the Idaho Historic Preservation Council and others were successful in saving the Bown House, at its original location.
Janet was one of the founding board members of the Bown House Heritage Program and was instrumental in getting the program off the ground by working on grants, organizing fundraisers to restore the house and organizing a team effort for the development of an innovative heritage education program for fourth grade field trips and community visits. She served as a docent at the Bown House since it opened for field trips in 1995. On these field trips local fourth graders visit the Bown House for over two hours and learn first-hand what it was like to live in the 1880's.
The Bown House has received many awards, including the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that Janet and others accepted on behalf of the program in Washington D.C.
Janet was an Assistance League of Boise (ALB) member for 33 years. She held many leadership positions but some of her favorite volunteer hours were spent teaching History in a Suitcase (a fourth grade history program that was the predecessor to the Bown House), Shopping Ala Carte (a nursing home project) and the ALB Thrift Shop. She also played a big role in ALB obtaining the Glenwood property that now houses the ALB Thrift Shop and Philanthropic Center.
Janet was a big believer in reading to children from birth and the importance of putting books in their hands. In 2000, she was the initiator and Project Director of "Operation My Own Book," a Delta Kappa Gamma program that annually supplies a new book to over 3,000 needy students in Boise, Kuna, and Meridian School Districts through the ALB Operation School Bell program. Since inception, the program has delivered books to over 20,000 children.
Janet was also an active board member for the Capitol Youth Soccer Association from 1980 to 1985 and was instrumental in starting the High School Soccer Varsity and Intramural (Rush Select) programs that are enjoyed by many high school soccer players today.
Her volunteer efforts were recognized with many awards over the years including the JC Penny Golden Rule Award, the Boise Education Association Friend of Education Award and the Girl Scout's Women of Today and Tomorrow Award. But her greatest reward was the joy she had knowing that her efforts made the lives of our children better, happier, more productive and more capable of becoming wonderful role models for the next generation. She was inspired by these words: "You each have the power to change the lives of those around you. You can motivate and inspire. You can empower those with whom you work to accomplish things that seem impossible." Janet's version of a quote from Getting Started by Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour and Rebecca Du Four.
One of Janet's friends described Janet the best: "Besides the obvious: a devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother, Janet was highly intelligent, humble to a fault, honest to a fault, an educator and education proponent, a volunteer for the betterment of the community and the welfare and education of children, a leader of innovative ideas, a person who walked her talk, a fact finder and problem solver, and compassionate to the needs of all."
Janet's talents however were much broader than working tirelessly to improve the public education system. Not only did she manage the family household in Boise, she also took care of the family's house on their cattle ranch in the Owyhee Mountains and the "duck shack", a recent acquisition by her sons on the Snake River.
Janet organized many family summer vacations including trips to Sun River, McCall, and the Washington coast. She enjoyed sharing numerous fishing and hunting expeditions across Idaho, Montana, Costa Rica, and South Dakota. She also attended innumerable baseball, basketball, football and soccer games, track, cross country and wrestling meets, locally and across the West. One of the best things about Janet was her willingness to do anything her husband, kids and grandkids were doing, just to be with them.
As Janet recently reflected on her life, she listed among her highest achievements having three wonderful children and nine talented and loving grandchildren. Janet's relationship with her grandchildren was particularly special. The family home has an upstairs with a boys' room, a girls' room, and a playroom. Each room is incredibly decorated and full of books, toys, and other things children love to play with. Janet hosted countless sleepovers, many times with all of her grandchildren. Their time with "GJ" or Grandma Jan as she was affectionately called was very special and will never be forgotten. Some of her grandchildren's favorite memories will be her picking them up from school, feeding them delicious after-school snacks, reading to them, hosting shopping trips, planting gardens with them, taking out-of-town trips with them, baking cakes for them, playing with them, teaching them what is right and wrong, teaching them to work hard in school and life and showing them how to love deeply.
To her children, she was a kind, smart, reliable, helpful, funny, patient mother who showed her unconditional love many times. To her husband, she was a beautiful, loyal, hard-working wife. She made dinner, kept house, and loved him more than anyone can love. She was a fun-loving, positive person who drew others into her. He didn't like sharing her, but knew that he would have to, for that was who she was: a champion for the betterment of her community and family. That is how we will remember her and she is forever in our hearts and memories as such. Goodbye Mom, Grandma and Wife. We love you and miss you so much.
Janet is survived by her husband of 44 years, Owen; their three children, Lori Dingel (Mike), Ben (Kimberly) and Will (Kristen); and nine grandchildren, Jake, Audrey, Elle, John, Katelyn, Abbie, Sam, Caroline and her newborn granddaughter, Josephine Janet; her siblings, Cathy (Jim) Carroll, Jack (Claire) Findlay and Jean (Dennis) Tuttle; sisters-in-law, Karen (John) Vehlow and Ruth (Larry) Smith; and many nieces and nephews.
The family gives special thanks to the staff at St. Luke's Hospital and MSTI for all of their care and support of our dear Janet.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the Cathedral of the Rockies, 717 N 11th St., Boise, Idaho. A reception will follow at Crane Creek Country Club, 500 W. Curling Dr., Boise, Idaho.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Boise Public Schools Education Foundation, www.boiseschoolsfoundation.com, or a charity of their choice.
Published in Idaho Statesman from April 1 to April 2, 2013
Janet was born in St. Johns, Michigan on December 9, 1944, to Loree and Myrtle Findlay. She was raised on a small farm and received her early education in a one-room schoolhouse.
From the beginning, Janet was a curious youth who yearned to learn. Her siblings described her as studious, self-disciplined and thoughtful who often played the role of peacemaker between her squabbling brother and sister. She had a special relationship with her Grandma Annie who took her under her wing, teaching her many things, including the importance of being kind to others.
Janet's strong work ethic and determination came in large part from her father who persevered serious health problems and worked two jobs for much of his life to support his family and to enable his four children to attend college.
It was in the one-room schoolhouse where Janet began her lifelong interest in teaching. She put it this way, "even at a fairly young age, I was naturally drawn to helping the younger children at my school. I guess that was the beginning of a lifelong interest in doing whatever I could to help the children around me."
Janet pursued her love for teaching and graduated with a B.A. in Elementary Education with honors from Michigan State. She then received her Master's in Reading Instruction from Michigan State.
It was Janet's warmth, kindness and compassion combined with her bright intellect that attracted Owen Orndorff to his Spartan blind date. Fortuitously for Owen, Janet forgot her purse on their first date which Owen leveraged for another date. To this day, their three children marvel at how Owen managed to land Janet's hand in marriage.
In August 1968 Janet and Owen became lifelong partners marrying right before Owen entered military service. In 1969, their first child Lori was born. Two years later, Ben came. The family was blessed again with the birth of their third child, Will, in 1979.
After leaving military service, Owen finished law school at Northwestern University. Owen was focused on legal positions in Chicago, but Janet pulled from the trash a crumpled up legal opportunity with Boise Cascade in Boise. She urged Owen to look into it. The two came to Boise and immediately fell in love with the area. Owen accepted the position and they took their young family on an adventure, arriving in Boise in the fall of 1974.
Janet began teaching in the Boise School District in 1975 and left the formal teaching ranks in 1979. Although she no longer received a paycheck for teaching, her devotion to public education was just beginning.
Janet's public service in the Boise School District started at Highlands Elementary in classrooms, fundraisers and the school carnival. Her service continued to North Junior High as the Chairman of its 50th Anniversary celebration and then broadened to the district level including co-coordinating the successful 1988 bond. She started her service as a Boise School District Trustee in 1990 and served in that position until her death.
During her 23 year tenure on the Board, she regularly lobbied and testified before the legislature on behalf of public education, she spearheaded the effort to rewrite the District's policy manual in a comprehensive manner that reflected our community's values, she advocated for the preservation and renovation of Boise High School and she spent many days traveling around the country for the "Light House Project," a program for training school board trustees. She also traveled around the state spreading her Light House training to other Idaho school board trustees.
Janet served on the State Professional Standards Commission and was an active member and served as President of the Idaho School Boards Association. Last year, she provided research and data analysis to help defeat the Students Come First laws, a name Janet thought to be a misnomer since one particularly troubling aspect of the laws removed teachers from the classroom and increased classroom sizes.
One of her most precious undertakings began in 1991. In order to make way for a new elementary school, the Boise School District was faced with the difficult decision of what to do with the Bown House, a historic 1879 home that was on the District's property where Riverside Elementary was to be built. It appeared the District had no choice but to demolish or move the Bown House. Janet, some fellow Trustees, the Idaho Historic Preservation Council and others were successful in saving the Bown House, at its original location.
Janet was one of the founding board members of the Bown House Heritage Program and was instrumental in getting the program off the ground by working on grants, organizing fundraisers to restore the house and organizing a team effort for the development of an innovative heritage education program for fourth grade field trips and community visits. She served as a docent at the Bown House since it opened for field trips in 1995. On these field trips local fourth graders visit the Bown House for over two hours and learn first-hand what it was like to live in the 1880's.
The Bown House has received many awards, including the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that Janet and others accepted on behalf of the program in Washington D.C.
Janet was an Assistance League of Boise (ALB) member for 33 years. She held many leadership positions but some of her favorite volunteer hours were spent teaching History in a Suitcase (a fourth grade history program that was the predecessor to the Bown House), Shopping Ala Carte (a nursing home project) and the ALB Thrift Shop. She also played a big role in ALB obtaining the Glenwood property that now houses the ALB Thrift Shop and Philanthropic Center.
Janet was a big believer in reading to children from birth and the importance of putting books in their hands. In 2000, she was the initiator and Project Director of "Operation My Own Book," a Delta Kappa Gamma program that annually supplies a new book to over 3,000 needy students in Boise, Kuna, and Meridian School Districts through the ALB Operation School Bell program. Since inception, the program has delivered books to over 20,000 children.
Janet was also an active board member for the Capitol Youth Soccer Association from 1980 to 1985 and was instrumental in starting the High School Soccer Varsity and Intramural (Rush Select) programs that are enjoyed by many high school soccer players today.
Her volunteer efforts were recognized with many awards over the years including the JC Penny Golden Rule Award, the Boise Education Association Friend of Education Award and the Girl Scout's Women of Today and Tomorrow Award. But her greatest reward was the joy she had knowing that her efforts made the lives of our children better, happier, more productive and more capable of becoming wonderful role models for the next generation. She was inspired by these words: "You each have the power to change the lives of those around you. You can motivate and inspire. You can empower those with whom you work to accomplish things that seem impossible." Janet's version of a quote from Getting Started by Robert Eaker, Richard DuFour and Rebecca Du Four.
One of Janet's friends described Janet the best: "Besides the obvious: a devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother, Janet was highly intelligent, humble to a fault, honest to a fault, an educator and education proponent, a volunteer for the betterment of the community and the welfare and education of children, a leader of innovative ideas, a person who walked her talk, a fact finder and problem solver, and compassionate to the needs of all."
Janet's talents however were much broader than working tirelessly to improve the public education system. Not only did she manage the family household in Boise, she also took care of the family's house on their cattle ranch in the Owyhee Mountains and the "duck shack", a recent acquisition by her sons on the Snake River.
Janet organized many family summer vacations including trips to Sun River, McCall, and the Washington coast. She enjoyed sharing numerous fishing and hunting expeditions across Idaho, Montana, Costa Rica, and South Dakota. She also attended innumerable baseball, basketball, football and soccer games, track, cross country and wrestling meets, locally and across the West. One of the best things about Janet was her willingness to do anything her husband, kids and grandkids were doing, just to be with them.
As Janet recently reflected on her life, she listed among her highest achievements having three wonderful children and nine talented and loving grandchildren. Janet's relationship with her grandchildren was particularly special. The family home has an upstairs with a boys' room, a girls' room, and a playroom. Each room is incredibly decorated and full of books, toys, and other things children love to play with. Janet hosted countless sleepovers, many times with all of her grandchildren. Their time with "GJ" or Grandma Jan as she was affectionately called was very special and will never be forgotten. Some of her grandchildren's favorite memories will be her picking them up from school, feeding them delicious after-school snacks, reading to them, hosting shopping trips, planting gardens with them, taking out-of-town trips with them, baking cakes for them, playing with them, teaching them what is right and wrong, teaching them to work hard in school and life and showing them how to love deeply.
To her children, she was a kind, smart, reliable, helpful, funny, patient mother who showed her unconditional love many times. To her husband, she was a beautiful, loyal, hard-working wife. She made dinner, kept house, and loved him more than anyone can love. She was a fun-loving, positive person who drew others into her. He didn't like sharing her, but knew that he would have to, for that was who she was: a champion for the betterment of her community and family. That is how we will remember her and she is forever in our hearts and memories as such. Goodbye Mom, Grandma and Wife. We love you and miss you so much.
Janet is survived by her husband of 44 years, Owen; their three children, Lori Dingel (Mike), Ben (Kimberly) and Will (Kristen); and nine grandchildren, Jake, Audrey, Elle, John, Katelyn, Abbie, Sam, Caroline and her newborn granddaughter, Josephine Janet; her siblings, Cathy (Jim) Carroll, Jack (Claire) Findlay and Jean (Dennis) Tuttle; sisters-in-law, Karen (John) Vehlow and Ruth (Larry) Smith; and many nieces and nephews.
The family gives special thanks to the staff at St. Luke's Hospital and MSTI for all of their care and support of our dear Janet.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the Cathedral of the Rockies, 717 N 11th St., Boise, Idaho. A reception will follow at Crane Creek Country Club, 500 W. Curling Dr., Boise, Idaho.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Boise Public Schools Education Foundation, www.boiseschoolsfoundation.com, or a charity of their choice.
Published in Idaho Statesman from April 1 to April 2, 2013
Sponsored by Ancestry
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