Janice Briggs Clark

Janice Clark (“Jan”) was so many things. Jan was the beloved youngest of four children. She loved people immensely and adored listening to their stories; she enjoyed telling stories of her own. Often deeply serious, too, she liked her time to herself, and was an avid, lifelong reader. She loved travel and spent her middle adult years living and working in Europe. She was interested in and looked out for others. She always put her family first, ahead of her own needs.

She grew up loving horses and dogs passionately, and they were her companions. She passed this deep love of animals on to her daughters.

An athlete and tennis champion in her youth, she was “ranked” in the State of California. She went on to pursue tennis in college. Both a serious student with a great intellect, and a striking beauty, she had long, wavy, auburn hair that caught her future husband Charlie’s eye. He would stand, courtside, and watch Jan practice tennis on the University of Arizona campus where they met. The family lore is, he knew he would marry her, though he still barely knew her then.

She told stories about college life and their courtship —and how “clever” he was to wait for her to return from her dates with other boys, and then call her on the sorority house telephone. On those nights, she would talk with him, getting to know him; and the sound of his voice would be the last thing she heard each night. It worked. They eloped and did not tell their parents. Later they “got married” in a proper church ceremony. They completed their degrees, and he went on to dental school; and they created their family, three girls. They were married for 57 years until Charlie died 9 years ago.

As a 30-year Navy wife, she served our country, too, in her own way —enduring separations, a war-time deployment, and more— all while supporting her partner, Charlie, and raising their three girls, Chere, Charmie, and Michele, with complete devotion. She loved to serve her military community, too, volunteering with “Navy Relief” in her desire to help the young sailors’ families.

Jan was a mother who gave her all to mothering, as her “life mission.” This was her most cherished job. Raising her three daughters was the greatest joy of her life, as she frequently said. She deeply loved being a grandmother, and recently became a great-grandmother, delighting in this newest role.

A lifelong learner, she returned to school in her 40’s and became a weapons safety specialist, and later an expert for the Department of Defense. Jan was so highly regarded, the commanding general of the Army air defense command created a new position just for her and essentially “stole” her away, to come to work for him.

In this new role, she would climb under and on top of heavy equipment, including missile launchers, to inspect them; to do this, she drove all over central Germany by herself to the distant and remote outposts of the command, during the height of the Cold War in the 1980’s. This was a time of extreme tension and fear of war.

Jan worked tirelessly, and she made sure the soldiers were safe and the systems were ready to defend them against possible attack. She was respected as a subject matter expert, winning the admiration and the affection of the young soldiers and commanders, alike. They lovingly called her “The Bird Lady,” because of her expertise on the HAWK Missile air defense system. She was both humbled and deeply thrilled at these opportunities, loved her work, and made a positive and lasting difference —surely saving lives. This work helped make the second half of her life a deeply happy, fulfilling time.

Late in life, Jan loved to swim and resumed playing bridge, a game she had greatly enjoyed as a young adult. She truly lived for the pro tennis tournament season, and she would sometimes wake herself in the wee hours of the morning to watch the tournaments broadcasting live from other countries.

After Charlie died, she carried on, just as he wanted her to, making a new life for herself: a widow with an unflagging zest for life in her late 70’s and early 80’s, at the Stanwood Merrill Gardens and Chateau at Bothell Landing communities.

Despite her many physical challenges, she had a lot of fun and made great friends, always with her daughters by her side and enjoying her to the fullest.

Janice —mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, lover of life— will be terribly missed.