Our classmate Jan Clare Viehman died August 9, 2019. Jan came to Princeton from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., with the intention, as she wrote in our 25th Reunion yearbook, of becoming a math major, “a hope that was derailed by the Honors Linear Algebra class that I just squeaked through.” Instead, she earned her A.B. degree in religion. After graduation, she began to study law at the University of Virginia but soon decided the law was not her passion.

At the time of our 25th Reunion, Jan had been a computer software developer for more than 23 years. “I see this as a return to my original intention freshman year of becoming a math major,” she wrote. Pursuing a craft she had begun in 1975, Jan was already making and selling art quilts, as well; she had the first solo show of her work in 1999 and enjoyed learning more about both the artistic and business aspects, saying, “I believe that as long as I am learning I am living.” She went on to found a business, Jan’s Quilts; taught machine piecing and quilting; and exhibited her creations as recently as 2015.

Jan sang in the Glee Club at Princeton and enjoyed being in the cast of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She and Bill Crutchfield ’73 *78 were married in 1976; the brief marriage ended in divorce. Jan was devoted to her cats and considered them to be family. We learned of her death only in January 2020, and it appears that she left no close relatives. Jan’s classmates mourn the loss of this talented woman who found such great satisfaction in creating art with fabric.