Wallace Brooks Jansen's Obituary
ST. MICHAELS – Wallace Brooks Jansen of St. Michaels, MD known as Wally to his friends, died Friday, August 28, 2015 at Talbot Hospice. He was 87.
Born December 1, 1927 he was the son of Edward Walter Jansen and Kathryn Kervin Jansen.
Wally graduated from Edgewood School in Greenwich, CT and went on to Cornell University. In September of 1946 he enlisted in the Army, serving in the Ordinance at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. After returning to Cornell, he later went to work in sales for Byron Jackson Pumps.
It was this job that brought Wally to South Carolina where he met and married Jane Amelia Rush of Spartanburg, SC and then later on to Washington D.C. where he specialized in pumps for the U.S. Navy. There, using his GI bill, he continued his education to graduate from George Washington University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, making the Deans list and being elected to Sigma Tau, the Engineering honor society. Wally liked to note that attaining his Professional Engineering License was an achievement his father (Cornell ’07 and also a PE) would have enjoyed seeing as it took him 15 years to complete.
His territory in Washington included all of Maryland and Virginia. Inevitably, he would call on Norman Shannahan of Shannanhan Artesian Well Drilling and be introduced to the town of St. Michaels. A providential sales call indeed.
Wally continued his education attending night school at the University of Chicago Executive Program, while managing the Chicago office of Byron Jackson Pumps. His Coast Guard Master’s License study also took place after hours.
Fortunately sailing took place in the daytime. Always a sailor from his childhood along Long Island Sound, Wally took Jane on her first sail on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Over the years they participated in racing El Toros, Penguins, an Ensign (the first Salty Dog) and cruising from Maine to Florida on their Pearson 365.
While managing the New York office and living in Old Greenwich, CT Wally and Jane raised three children: Edward Rush Jansen, with whom he won the Ensign Nationals as well as the coveted Black Jack Trophy during Manhasset Bay Race Week (deceased), James Lindsey Jansen of Studio City, CA and Jane Jansen Seymour, and her husband Paul of Darien, CT, before retiring to that sailors’ paradise, St. Michaels, MD. He is also survived by two grandchildren, James Edward Seymour of Denver, CO and Sadie Harrison of London, England.
A sailors’ send-off celebration is planned for 11:00 am Thursday, September 3 at the Miles River Yacht Club. Boating attire and sailing yarns are encouraged. A graveside service of burial will be held in the churchyard at the First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich, CT at a future date.
Memorial contributions may be made to: The Talbot Hospice Foundation, 586 Cynwood Drive, Easton, MD 21601 and St. Michaels Fire Department, 1001 S. Talbot St., St. Michaels, MD 21663.
Assistance to the family is provided by the Ostrowski Funeral Home, St. Michaels
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