Janet Delli Quadri Ward

1940 - 2022

Janet Delli Quadri Ward
January 31, 1940 - May 15, 2022
Boise, Idaho - Janet Delli Quadri Ward of Boise, Idaho, died May 15, 2022, at 82 years old from a gall bladder infection that became septic.
Janet was born on January 31, 1940, to Carmen and Anne Delli Quadri. She was the eldest of her siblings. Her family moved quite a bit when she was young, but every summer was spent at the family cabin on Swan Lake in Minnesota.
She skipped a grade in school because she was smart and taller than everyone in her class. She was a girl scout, on the alpine ski team, and involved in speech and the school newspaper. Janet graduated from Houghton High School, Michigan, as salutatorian in 1957. She started college at Middlebury, but she fractured her skull falling off a horse in the summer of 1960 and took time off to recover. She later finished her bachelor's degree at Denver University.
Janet studied biology in graduate school at University of Colorado-Boulder. She researched paramecia in the high mountain lakes, logging environmental parameters in the process. Her thesis became one of the most referenced from UC Boulder as a baseline in water quality before acid rain. In 1964, she graduated with a master's degree and married Frederick "Fritz" Ward, one of her hiking buddies.
In 1965, they moved so Fritz could pursue his PhD in Math at Virginia Tech. Their children were born during this time. Upon graduation, Fritz took a job teaching math at what would become Boise State University, and they moved to Idaho.
Janet kept her "absent-minded professor" husband organized. She raised her kids, often volunteering as room mother or scout leader. She made the best jam, pies, and sugar cookies. The family hiked, backpacked, and cross-country skied in Idaho and made summer sojourns back to Swan Lake.
She developed life-long friends in folk dance, bridge, Unitarian Universalist, and writing groups; American Association of University Women; and many environmental organizations. She researched women's experiences of the fur trade and Oregon Trail and gave presentations for the Idaho Humanities Council.
Parkinson's disease slowed Janet down in her later years, as did supporting her adult daughter who became disabled. After Janet broke her hip in October of 2020, she moved to live at Shaw Mountain of Cascadia. We appreciate that the staff treated her like family because, due to Covid, family could only visit through the window the first half of her time there.
She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Fritz Ward; her children, Fritz Robin and Sonja Ward; her siblings David Delli Quadri and Wendy Williamson; and many nieces and nephews.
Memorial Service will be Saturday, September 24, 2022, at the Dick Eardley Senior Center in Boise at 2pm. Masks may be required for service. Following service, refreshments will be served on the patio.
If you would like to donate in Janet's memory, The Inez Robb Scholarship was dear to her heart. Checks should be made payable to AAUW Boise with "Inez Robb (Ward)" on the memo line and mailed to AAUW Boise, PO Box 16548, Boise ID 83715. For more information or donate with credit card, go to https://boise-id.aauw.net/scholarship. Remembrances may be left for Janet's family on her webpage at www.AccentFuneral.com.