Jan Ross

1945-2025

The family of Janice Wiley Ross is saddened to announce that Jan passed away at her home in Goleta, California on September 5th, after a long struggle with ovarian cancer.

Jan was born in Rochester, NY, the eldest of six children of Nickie and Frank Wiley. She grew up surrounded by a loving family on a dairy farm near Victor, NY. She loved school, animals, reading and music. She attended Syracuse University where she received a BA in education of blind and visually impaired students and then taught for 3 years in Bristol, CT. She received a MA in teaching students with intellectual disabilities at the same time in order to teach students with multiple disabilities more effectively.

While in high school she began dating Jim Ross and they were married in 1969 after which they moved to Santa Barbara, California. Jan continued to teach students with visual impairments, eventually working with typical VI students, multi-disabled students and infants with visual impairments. She enjoyed her work greatly and found it very stimulating to find individual solutions for each student with whom she worked.

In 1973 Jan and Jim welcomed their first daughter Amy and in 1974 their second daughter Megan. Jan loved being a parent and learned a lot about people with Down Syndrome as Megan was born with that condition. Their family enjoyed traveling in the Southwest and across the country, exploring our amazing country. Later their family also included Rob Walker, a friend of the family, and Zeb Smith, Jan’s nephew.

Jan served as President of ARC Santa Barbara for two stints, one of which involved rebuilding the Alpha Center after it burned in the Painted Cave Fire. She also was Director of Religious Exploration and very active in the Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Goleta. She loved bird watching, gardening, hiking and camping. She belonged to two book groups as well and read voraciously. She was active in many social justice activities to help develop safe and welcoming communities for everyone.

During the last few years of her life Jan battled ovarian cancer, and was very well cared for by her loving husband, Jim. She also wishes to express her gratitude to the doctors and nurses at the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, Cottage Hospital, and the Fresenius Dialysis Center, who helped care for her during her illness.

She is survived by her husband Jim, her daughter Amy (Christopher), daughter Megan, and grandchildren Ava and Russell Ganci, as well as her sisters Barbara (Richard), Deborah (Robert), MaryLynn, Katie (Andy), brother Peter (Linda), sister-in-law Sione (Jim), along with numerous nieces and nephews.

A celebration of her life will be held at Live Oak UU Congregation on Saturday, October 4th at 2pm and donations can be made in her name to Ridley-Tree Cancer Center or Alpha Resource Center.