Helen Janet Marti

Marti, Helen Janet
January 12, 1920 - December 26, 2010
Helen ??Jan?? Marti, 90, of Eau Claire, WI, formerly of San Diego, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, CA, passed away at Milestone Senior Living Apartments in Eau Claire, WI, on Sunday, December 26, 2010 of type B lymphoma.
Born January 12, 1920 in Jackson, MI to Polish immigrant farmers Joseph and Pauline (Bobrowski) Urynowicz, Jan was the sixth of ten children. She was the first in her family to attend high school, setting a precedent for her younger siblings, and was the only one to finish college, taking a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti) in 1941 and a Master??s in medical technology from Wayne State University (Detroit) in 1943. She worked her way through college at Ford Hospital in Detroit, and then in the mid-1940??s, moved to San Francisco, CA, where she worked as an assistant to Thomas Addis at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Jan later settled in Los Angeles, where she met and married Norman Foote Marti while working at Cedars of Lebanon, and then served as a research assistant to Linus Pauling at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech).
Divorced in 1964, Jan navigated the then-uncharted territory of single parenthood with courage and grace, sacrificing her full-time profession as a research technologist for one of routine laboratory work while raising her daughter, in whom she instilled the same independence and love of learning that had always driven her own relentless pursuit of knowledge. She returned to research during the last ten years of her working life at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, fulfilling a lifelong dream. She moved to Eau Claire, WI in 2002.
Always a student, forever active, creative, practical, and curious, Jan read constantly and traveled widely. She had lived in or visited forty-nine of the fifty United States (all but Alaska) and also toured Greece, Italy, England, France, Egypt, Canada, and parts of Mexico. She played tennis well into her 70??s, enrolled in community college classes??from music appreciation to furniture upholstery??into her eighties, and was an accomplished artist and an erudite lover of classical music. She was known as the financial wizard of the family, had the greenest of green thumbs, and was unrivalled in the kitchen, leaving behind a legacy of original recipes that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. An active member of her community after her retirement in 1985, she served multiple terms as president of the Mira Mesa, CA Senior Center, and she held strong political convictions as well, sitting for two terms as a member of the California Senior Legislature representing the Mira Mesa/Scripps Ranch region of San Diego. She was always ready for a spirited debate on the issues of the day, and her dry sense of humor and lively conversation will be sorely, sorely missed.
Jan is survived by her daughter Melinda (Tom) Hagenson of Eau Claire, WI and grandsons Bryan (Milwaukee, WI), Kevin (Eau Claire, WI), and Tyler Patton (Mayville, WI), as well as numerous and much-loved nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. She is reunited in death with her parents and all nine of her brothers and sisters: Joseph, Edward, John, Raymond, and Josephine Urene, Joann Wheeler, Stephanie ??Steve?? Olmsted, Sophia Bancroft, and Odelia ??Dee?? Cohen.
Services will be held at 1 pm on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at Fuller-Speckien-Hulke Funeral Home in Eau Claire, and she is to be laid to rest at Lakeview Cemetery overlooking Half Moon Lake. Friends may call at the funeral home a half hour prior to the services.
As much as she loved all blooming things, Jan felt that they were for the living; the family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her name to the American Cancer Society and/or the American Heart Association.
Friends may offer condolences online at www.fullerspeckienhulke.com.