Janice Pachowsky Carpenter

Janice Pachowsky Carpenter, 80, died in Waterville, Maine on Wednesday, August 27, 2025, peacefully, with family by her side while listening to the music of Chuck Berry, after a prolonged battle with several disabilities. Janice was born on July 11, 1945, in Waterville, the only child of Samuel Louis Pachowsky and Minna Abbott Pachowsky of Fairfield. Janice’s mother was active in the community, and impressed Janice with aspirations toward civic engagement. Minna’s large family, descended of the Freewill Baptist abolitionist tradition, has hailed from the East Winslow area for well over 200 years. Janice’s father Sam, born and raised in Waterville, was from a family of Jewish immigrants arriving at the start of the 20th century, settling in the Waterville and Pittsburgh, PA areas. Minna converted to Judaism, and Janice’s early childhood was shaped by the flavors and traditions of her Lithuanian bubbe and zayde. An amputee Purple Heart veteran of World War II, Sam returned to run a successful real estate business, influencing Janice’s interest in affordable housing. Janice was devoted to supporting and caring for her father and mother throughout their life, and with her ministrations, they thrived in their home to the ages of 100 and 98, respectively.

Janice went to Fairfield and Waterville schools, with intervals at Coburn Classical Institute, and Abbot Academy in Andover, MA, and years of training in piano and ballet. She graduated from Waterville High in 1963, then attended the Rhode Island School of Design School of Architecture, followed by three years part time at Colby College. Janice first met Steve at Averill School in Waterville in the 3rd grade, during a special recess when two classes met to view a snowy owl near the schoolyard. Later, during a friend’s birthday party, a 15-year-old Janice won an impromptu Twisting dance contest, and Bill Carpenter – selected to judge, and pointedly asked by Janice, “What’s my prize?” – said, “You can have my brother.” After his graduation from Colby, Steve and Janice were married in the Colby Chapel in 1967. Steve’s sister Betsy says: “Always on the cutting edge of 1960’s fashion, Janice imparted a sense of style to her smitten new kid sisters. And, she was known for her parties, including the ‘extension-cord party’ where each guest was instructed to bring an electrical cord to power the turntable on the beach 200 yards away.” After their wedding, Janice and Steve followed his graduate education, fellowships, and teaching engagements cross-country to Minnesota, New York, Maryland, and finally back to Portland, Maine in 1977, with children Stephen and Kate arriving along the way, and summers spent at her parents’ Indian Point cottage in Georgetown.

In Portland, Janice became a quiet but resourceful and persistent community activist during the 1980s and 90s. She wrote a successful grant application for the Portland Fire Museum; organized a “Computers for Kids” show at the Riverton Community School (now Talbot) in 1982 that drew a huge crowd and jump-started awareness of personal computing in the area; managed several political campaigns; wrote a school transportation bill that addressed inequities; prevented the placement of a trash-to-energy plant in an environmentally sensitive area; launched a community effort to preserve the historic Riverton Trolley Park site that would eventually become a featured part of the Portland trail system; and wrote a bill to create a new system of branch libraries within the Portland Library system, discouraging the closure of existing regional branches -- most of which are still open 30 years later, and helped found the Riverton Community Association. During the 1990’s Siege of Sarajevo, she campaigned for the successful evacuation by the US State Department of two renowned classical musicians (whose transition to America inspired a prize-winning play, The Music Lesson by Tammy Ryan). In public life, Janice served many years as a member and then chair of the Portland City Manager’s Advisory Committee (now the Community Development Block Grant Annual Allocation Committee); and also as a board member of both the Portland Area League of Women Voters, and the Maine League of Women Voters, organizing educational events, political debates, and serving as Board President of the Maine LWV in the early 2000s.

From early 2000s onward, Janice focused on her family, and administering Steve’s software business. She split her time between supporting her parents’ lives in Waterville, and keeping up with her beloved Portland’s transformations, all while welcoming four grandchildren.

Janice was predeceased by her son Stephen Abbott Carpenter, her sister-in-law Jane Carpenter Poliquin and her sister-in-law Betsy’s husband Peter Martyn Winter. She is survived by her husband, Stephen Sparrell Carpenter of Waterville, her daughter-in-law Jennifer Moniz Carpenter and Jennifer’s twin sons Aaron Christopher Carpenter and Michael Quinn Carpenter, of Plymouth, MA; her daughter Katherine Chaya Morton Carpenter, Kate’s husband Roo Louis Brook Dunn, and their children Riley Nathan Carpenter Dunn and Bean Abigail Mason Dunn of Bath; her brother-in-law William Morton Carpenter and his wife Donna Gold of Stockton Springs; her sister-in-law Elizabeth Ashley Carpenter of Georgetown; her sister-in-law Jane’s husband Bruce Lee Poliquin of Georgetown; her adored four nephews and one niece, and many of more than 50 first cousins and their families.

Janice’s family would like to recognize with deep appreciation the love and assistance of many helpers, especially Tammye Steeves, Toby Adams, JoAnne Caron, Jeanne-Marie Boutin and Kayla Clark-Fickett, and in her final months the caring guidance of nurse Izzy Bell.

A service will be held on Saturday, September 20 at 9:30am at Wilde Memorial Chapel in Portland’s Evergreen Cemetery, followed by an 11am gathering at the nearby gravesite, and a 12pm reception with refreshments at Bruno’s Restaurant, 33 Allen Avenue. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Preble Street, to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, or a local, bipartisan voter advocacy organization. For an online guest book please visit www.jonesrichandbarnes.com.