Jan J. Vandever

Jan J. Vandever died Oct. 1, 2014, while in hospice care at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage after a long battle with cancer.

Surviving are her sister Nancy Rogers; her nephew, James Dean; and her niece, Donna Holt.

Jan was born Oct. 28, 1944, in Newark, New Jersey. She attended Monmouth College in West Long Branch, New Jersey, and began a teaching career that spanned nearly 50 years at St. Mary’s School in Middletown, New Jersey.

Jan then earned a Master’s of Education in Mathematics Education from Rutgers University in 1971, a Master’s of Arts in Teaching Mathematics from Colorado State University in 1973 and a doctorate in Measurement and Statistics from the University of North Dakota in 1976.

Jan taught from 1981-2003 for South Dakota State University. Upon her retirement, she was given Professor Emeritus of Mathematics status.

Upon retiring from SDSU in 2003, Jan taught for 10 years at Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer.

Jan was a big fan of baseball. She held season tickets to the Mat-Su Miners and she threw out the first pitch for the team’s 2013 season. Having pitched in a softball league in South Dakota, Jan had no problem throwing the ball from the pitcher’s mound clear to home plate.

A funeral mass for Jan Vandever is at 12:10 p.m., Oct. 17 at St. Michael’s. A reception will follow.