Janice Altick Jurgensen Obituary
Our mother, Janice (Jan) Altick Jurgensen, passed away on September 20, 2024 at Broadview Christian Science nursing facility in Los Angeles, CA
Her beloved husband, Robert (Bob) Jurgensen, passed away in 2019, just shy of their 66th wedding anniversary.
Born in 1933 in Seattle, Jan spent her early childhood in Washington. The family later moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended a Quaker Friends school. She attended Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in Political Science, and met the love of her life, Bob Jurgensen. They married in San Francisco in 1953, and graduated from Stanford in 1954.
After Bob's two years in the U.S. Army, the couple settled in Pasadena, where Bob worked for his father's Jurgensen's grocery store chain for nearly 20 years, rising to become president. In 1974 they moved to the Santa Ynez Valley, where Bob became business manager, teacher, and baseball coach at Dunn School.
Devoted to her husband and her four children, Jan was also a dedicated lifelong student of Christian Science. She served in the Christian Science churches in Pasadena and Solvang for many years. An avid reader, she participated in several book clubs, walking groups, bridge clubs, and political clubs. Bob and Jan also golfed regularly, and took many golf vacations, especially to their favorite, the Big Island of Hawaii.
Jan was a gentle soul and a humble, modest woman, but she had a robust passion for God, family, and country. Her integrity and character were forged out of her devout faith in God. She demonstrated courage, dignity, and kindness throughout her nine decade journey on this plane.
We could say she is in God's hands now, but as she taught us, she was always in God's hands. We think of her now as reunited with our father among still waters and green pastures. And we recall some of her favorite spiritual and biblical passages: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." And "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
If our father was the family's rock, our mother was its heart. She demonstrated pure, unselfish lovingkindness in all that she said and did–not just to her family but to everyone–and through her words and example she taught us, her children, how to love others. We were, and will continue to be, so very blessed by her presence in our lives.
Jan is survived by her children, Ken Jurgensen (wife, Mary Siegmund), Doug Jurgensen, Lynn Jurgensen, and Neil Jurgensen; her grandchildren, Jackie Jurgensen Milligan (husband, Joseph Milligan), Keith Jurgensen, Claire Jurgensen, Emma Jurgensen, and her great-grandchildren, Finley and Emerie.
Mom, we love you forever, "a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck!"
