Janet Murray Fiske died Nov.13, 2012 at home in Vashon Community Care, Vashon, WA. She was 99 years old – 10 days from her 100th birthday.
She will be remembered for her love of life, her
generosity with family and friends, her enjoyment of the arts, her originality and style, her welcoming home, her passions and projects.
Janet was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one of five children of Frederick G. Murray, a physician, and Janette S. Murray, an author, newspaper and radio correspondent, school commissioner and homemaker who was named American Mother of the Year in 1947. Janet graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids and taught school in Iowa and Massachusetts. Before earning a master of arts degree from Columbia University in New York City, she traveled and worked in France and Greece.
In 1940 she married John C. Fiske, whom she met at Columbia. John worked in naval intelligence during World War ll and, after the war, the couple and their two children lived in Moscow, USSR, where John continued to work in naval intelligence. In 1947 they returned to the United States and lived in the Boston area while John completed work for his Ph.D. at Harvard.
John, Janet and now four children lived in Ames, Iowa, for four years where John taught at Iowa State College before moving to Washington, D.C. There he worked for Human Relations Area Files writing country reports and Janet continued to be active in volunteer work.
Janet’s life changed abruptly when in 1957 John entered the U.S. foreign service and from 1957 to 1969 the family moved from Dacca, East Pakistan (now Dhaka, Bangladesh) to Heidelberg, Germany, to Kinshasa, Congo to Bremen, Germany, and back to Washington, D.C. John and Janet’s last posting was to Reykjavik, Iceland. During these years Janet served as the wife of a cultural attaché, organizing women’s groups, hosting visiting dignitaries, artists and exchange scholars, and managing the household.
After retiring from government service in 1970, John taught languages at the University of Idaho for five years. The couple then settled into retirement in Moscow, Idaho. Janet helped build Moscow’s first recycling center, restore Paradise Creek as “the city’s waterfront,” develop bicycle and walking trails and promote historic preservation.
Janet was a longtime member of the Moscow chapter of the League of Women Voters. She started an annual fund-raiser packaging and selling peas and lentils, agricultural mainstays of the Palouse region, which earned recognition from the state Pea and Lentil Commission. Janet and her husband also were active in local, state and national Democratic politics.
In 2006, the mayor of Moscow declared a day in Janet’s honor, in recognition of her contributions to the community over the years.
In 2009, Janet moved to Vashon to be closer to family. She participated actively in programs at VCC and in tutoring at the grade school.
John Fiske died in 1998. Janet is survived by her four children, Lindsay Hofman of Vashon, Jonathan of Evanston, Ill., Anne of Newport, N.C., and Fred of Syracuse, N.Y.; her sister Winifred Kelley of Des Moines Iowa; 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 23 – Janet’s 100th birthday – at 2 p.m. at the Vashon Community Care, 15333 Vashon Highway, Vashon, WA. A second service celebrating her life is planned for Moscow, Idaho at a later date, followed by interment of her remains next to her husband.
Contributions in Janet’s name may be made to the Vashon Community Care or the League of Women Voters Moscow Chapter.
Paid Obituary.
