Jeanne Bickford, Ph.D.

Dr. Jeanne Bickford died on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 at 3:30pm. Her sons Jeremy and Abraham Jankans were at her side when she died. Ms. Bickford was born in Portland, Oregon on November 8th, 1940; it was a stormy day in stark contrast to the day that she died. Jeanne (or "Mom", as we knew her) had 5 children: Tristan, Amaris, Hilary, Jeremy and Abraham. Dr. Bickford lived an enormously effective life, managing to create change in the world despite the difficulties which the world leveled upon her. She marched with Cesar Chavez to secure human rights for migrant farm workers in the early 1960's while carrying a baby in her arms. In the early 1970's Jeanne helped to lead the fight which ensured that young women would be able to learn at the heretofore boys-only Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon. At the time, Benson High School was the only public high school in Portland which offered a comprehensive industrial vocational education. Ms. Bickford's argument, "perhaps young women would like to know how to fix cars too", seems obvious to us now. In the Late 1980's she moved with her sons Jeremy and Abraham to Irvine, California. There she enrolled in the Social Ecology Doctoral Program at the University of California at Irvine, earning a PhD. in Social Ecology with an emphasis on white collar crime in June of 1995. Here again Dr. Bickford worked to change lives for the better working as a Professor at the UC Irvine, one of our nation's premier public Universities. It was a point of pride for Dr. Bickford that her classes were always full; she was an extremely popular professor.

Dr. Bickford did all these things while raising children into intelligent, compassionate, concerned and informed, hardworking and creative people who know that their connection to this world goes well and far beyond where their hands can reach; that their duty is not only to themselves and their immediate family, but to the world and this world's children of all types. It was at times a hard life, but she lived it with strength and resolve and in her later years she was gifted with grandchildren and world travel and familial reconnection. Her cup was full. She taught us well, and though we miss her deeply we know that her cup was full. Blessed be Dr. Bickford.