Janet Kimball Clymer

77, died surrounded by love on November 13, 2012, at the home of one of her daughters in Woodinville, Washington. She was born August 29, 1935 in Portland, Maine the daughter of Margaret and Harold Kimball. In 1957 she graduated from Colby College and in 1959 received a Masters in Speech and Audiology from Stanford University. After graduating, Janet moved to Denver where she became the head of Speech and Audiology at Children's Hospital. Janet was 27 when she met the young architect George Clymer. Their first date was the "French 76 sports car rally". They loved art, books, sports, music and family. In 1963 they married at St. John's Cathedral in Denver. Janet was committed to public education, particularly desegregation of Denver schools. She volunteered with Friends of the Denver Public Library and with her friend Sue Swanson started Congress Park soccer for girls. Jan and George retired to Mayfair Farm in New Hampshire where they had sheep, dogs and a quarter horse. Janet worked at the Toadstool bookshop where she was a beloved independent bookseller and head of the children's book dept. She won the National Bookseller of the Year. She returned to school attending Harvard College to take courses in mediation and became a mediator of the Cheshire Mediation Center. After George's untimely death in 1994, she took care of the farm herself. On a rainy evening in 2008 Janet went out to feed the sheep and suffered a massive stroke. Janet's effortless abundance of talk, crafts, work and entertaining were cut short by her inability to speak and her confinement to a wheelchair. She spent the next five years demonstrating that life could be appreciated everyday by connecting with friends, making art and expressing herself with facial expressions and a few words. Janet is survived by her children and their families: her daughter Liz Clymer and her partner Tonja Ridgeway, her son Bill Clymer and his wife Sarah Marold Clymer, and their children Elizabeth, Mary, George, and daughter Margaret Clymer Flatness and husband Scott Flatness and their children Adam and Austin, her sister-in-law Lynn Clymer Elder, brother's-in-law Andrew Elder and John Guilbert, numerous nieces and nephews and her service dog Keegan. Services will be held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver Colorado on December 15, 2012 at 10:00 a.m., and a memorial gathering this summer in Harrisville, NH. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be sent to the Friends Foundation of Denver Public Library www.dplfriends.org or Historic Harrisville www.historicharrisville.org or Guild Assistance Dog Partners (GAP) of Denver www.gapservicedogs.com