Obituary of Jane Ruth Egloff

And Ruth said: Entreat me not to leave thee or to turn from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go, where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my god. Where thou diest, I will die and there will I be buried. The Lord do so unto me and more also if ought but death part thee and me. Ruth 1:16-17. Jane Ruth Egloff died March 22, 2012 supported by her loving wife, Dana Harvey, and surrounded by her family and friends. She had been in declining health after a stroke in 2006 and, more recently, a fall late last year. She is missed by her sons, Liam Murphy (Susan Hess) and Owen Murphy (Alicia), and her daughter, Jessica Murphy (Vincent Saccomando); her stepson Damon Harvey (Dolores) and stepdaughter Jill Marie Harvey (James Garrison); her grandchildren, Thomas, Emily, Ian, Shannon; and stepgrandchildren, Lukis and Sienna; many beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews; and many dear friends. Jane taught so many people to live and love that it will be hard to do her or them justice in a short space. Jane was born February 9, 1941 in West Hempstead, Long Island. She was, at heart, always a "terror” of a New Yorker. Her father, David Egloff, was a Teamster steward at Macy’s and her mother, Ruth, created a home where Jane learned to love reading and learning. In high school and college, she spent summers working at Jones Beach State Park and Carnegie Hall, an experience that left her able to do enormous sums in her head. She left Massapequa for Buffalo to attend D’Youville College and began forming friendships that sustained her for a lifetime. She met and married William J. Murphy. After that marriage ended in divorce, Jane continued to learn more about herself and was fortunate to fall in love again, this time marrying Dana Harvey in Canada under the care of Buffalo Friends Meeting in 2004. Jane was the consummate teacher. She helped teach her children a love of learning, family and life, and those lessons infused everything she did. Jane’s love of learning grew throughout her life. She started her career at the Buffalo and Erie County Library’s Fairfield and North Park branches. As a librarian, she made enduring friendships among both her colleagues (adding Dorothy and Norman Rothenberg and their children as part of her extended family) and patrons (including Sarah Kinney and others), many of whom remained friends with her for decades. After working in the Buffalo Public Libraries, she earned her Master’s in Library Science at the University of Buffalo and started working at the Buffalo Public Schools under Evelyn Didas. In the early 1970s, Jane used the Spanish she learned under Sister Marie Christine Fitzgerald, GNSH at D’Youville to help organize Buffalo’s first bilingual elementary school library at what is now the PS76 Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy. At what was then PS76, she continued to form deep friendships with students, including Gale Swanka and Joe Boyler, which sustained throughout her life. After her children were born, Jane could not be a full-time librarian, so Miss Didas used Jane as an emergency librarian, sending her in to replace colleagues on leave or to fix troubled libraries. Jane helped design the library at the Waterfront School, but ended up leaving the job to help put together a library for the PS19 Native American Magnet School. She again used this opportunity to build community--a defining feature of her life. She was thrilled to begin to understand better the Haudenosaunee. When the time came to move jobs again, Jane took on the library at the Grover Cleveland High School. Once again, she made life-long friends among the staff and students. She was deeply enriched by the opportunity to help students become life-long learners, and gave special attention to overlooked learners, like athletes and immigrants. She enjoyed the challenge of re-tooling Grover Cleveland’s library to help the influx of immigrants to Buffalo in the 1990s, finding dictionaries in over 40 languages to ensure students could achieve their dreams. Jane was a strong, spirit-filled and joyful woman. While she started life as a Catholic, she was convinced of Friends starting at Orchard Park Monthly Meeting. She later became a member of Buffalo Quaker Meeting, where she served on Ministry and Counsel, Social Justice and many other committees and where she and her wife Dana served as co-Clerks. She and Dana regularly attended conferences for Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns before Jane was slowed by her stroke. Jane loved to attend Meeting wherever she travelled, including Chautauqua, Wilmington (4th & West) and Ithaca Meetings. She read deeply in religion and introduced her family and many others to the philosophy of Woolman, Brinton, Kelly, Merton, among others. To her last days, Jane’s strong political and religious beliefs were based on the essential truth that people come first. She emphatically spoke for racial equality, gender equality and for children whenever and wherever she could. She spoke for women’s rights with passion, pride and patience. She helped protect women seeking abortions and then took the time to maintain her friendships with those opposing that choice. Even after the stroke stole a part of her voice, Jane emphatically insisted on D(d)emocratic principals (or NDP principals in her adopted country of Canada). Jane’s dinners were legendary among her friends, and the stories of the fun and fellowship at her table left all who knew her with smiles on their faces and delicious memories. Her love of purple was well-known; on the morning before her death, she smiled at pictures of purple crocuses and this year’s irises. She was an artist of no small accomplishment, but she never had the time to paint or draw as much as she liked: she preferred to give her attention to her friends and family. Jane loved dance, theatre and books. She read anything and everything, from War and Peace as a young girl, to trash mysteries, and everything in between. Jane read (and wrote) poetry with a passion, and she spent many happy hours wandering museums, including the Albright-Knox. She thrilled to all her grandchildren, eyes dancing in delight in all the stories of their doings. She loved to be "dressed to the nines” (in purple whenever possible) and was greatly comforted by the extraordinary care she received from Dana and Jessica over the past few months as her health declined, chuckling at the wonderful designs Jess painted on carefully manicured fingers and toes. Jane’s family will be receiving friends at the Orchard Park Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, 6924 East Quaker Street (US Rte 20A), Orchard Park, New York starting at 3 pm on March 31, 2012. Jane’s life will be celebrated at a memorial service in the tradition of Friends also at the Orchard Park Friends Meeting House starting at 5 p.m. There will be a brief reception after the memorial service. While Jane enjoyed flowers, she loved helping people, so the family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Buffalo Meeting, Religious Society of Friends, 1272 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14209, or to the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, New York 14203.