Janet Olivia Lanphier

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Janet Lanphier Obituary

Janet Olivia Lanphier

La Jolla
Janet Olivia Lanphier, age 74, of New York City and Greenport NY, died peacefully on July 3, 2023.
Janet Lanphier was born in Boise, ID, and grew up in La Jolla, CA. She received a BA from Cornell University and a MA from Columbia. She moved to New York City in 1974. She and her husband, David Draper, purchased a farm in Greenport in 1999 and Janet divided her time between professional services in the city and gardening upstate.
She had a long and successful career in transportation planning. She worked for the NYC Transit Authority in commuter rail operations. Under Mayor Dinkins' administration she was Deputy Commissioner in the Transportation Department and managed the Staten Island Ferry. For the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Janet managed the Manhattan Bus Operation until she retired in 2016. Thereafter, she started a consulting business working with Siemens in the development of the use and placement of video equipment in NYC buses as an enhanced safety feature. Between transportation jobs, Janet worked for Pearson Publishing in the college textbook division.
Janet always had a deep respect and love of art and in her later years became a tour guide for the Metropolitan Museum of Art - perhaps her favorite role.
Janet will always be remembered for her beauty, intelligence, and kindness. She was articulate and conversant on many subjects and enjoyed a keen sense of humor and perception in all she encountered.
Janet was predeceased by her elder sister Patricia Cobb Mix. She is survived by her husband and sisters Judith Lanphier Strada, Kathleen Charles Lanphier, and Phyllis Ada Lanphier.
Janet wanted no services. Her ashes will be spread on the farm in Greenport, NY; Payette Lake in Idaho where the family vacationed, and Windansea Beach in La Jolla where she grew up.

Please sign the guest book online at legacy.com/obituaries/ lajollalight

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Published by La Jolla Light on Aug. 17, 2023.

Memories and Condolences
for Janet Lanphier

8 Entries

Josh

January 27, 2025

Janet and my mother were great friends who met in the publishing industry. And they remained very close, all the way up to my mother's passing in 2010. We lived in SoCal, close to where Janet grew up, and when she moved to New York, my mother would go visit her often and they had long talks on the phone that I remember vividly as a child. Janet was just incredibly smart, witty, extraordinarily beautiful, graceful, uniquely warm and caring, and I admired her deeply for all of that and consider her one of the most influential people in my life. One of the all-time greats, as my mother would say.

Barbara P Irwin

November 6, 2023

Janie, as we called her in the sorority at Cornell, was refreshingly a no-nonsense kind of person. Limitations became strengths, no excuses. She was sorority cultural chair, and I recall her disappointment with the cultural curiosity of a pledge class, circa late sixties; she said to everyone: "If you can´t be _interesting_, at least be _interested_." What a great quote. It´s stayed with me my whole life. Be interested! Condolences to Janie´s family on their loss.

Jon Foster

September 2, 2023

I have never met someone so intelligent, solid , beautiful and caring as Janie. Wish I could see her again

Mary D. Mitchell

August 28, 2023

Janet ("Janie," as I called her) was my best friend when we were five years old in La Jolla. She was fun, bright, and sensitive. From what I read in her obituary in the La Jolla Light newspaper (Aug. 17, 2023), she led a busy, successful, and fulfilling life, with many interests and accomplishments, which is all I could have wished for her.

Kristina Starkey

August 26, 2023

I knew the Lanphier family when were neighbors in La Jolla. Janet was my inspiration as she survived a horrendous accident as a child. My sister is named after her! I'll never forget the night we all curled up in the Lanphier livingroom to watch Frankenstein. At a young age, I ended up with her parents because I was so frightened. I never lived it down. We had great times and I missed Janet after she moved back east. Fond memories. My condolences to her family. Kristina Starkey (Kay Morgan's daughter)

Yanon Volcani

August 21, 2023

So, so sorry to hear of this. Janet, I remember you as we were driving on the bus to Disneyland on the evening of our La Jolla High graduation, June 16, 1966; your compassionate wit and wisdom shining through so brightly even way back then...

Brad Owens

August 18, 2023

This is such sad news! Janet and I were classmates at La Jolla High School - both of us chosen as best personalities in our senior class! Although I only saw Janet once after high school, my memories of Janet always bring a smile. The world has lost a kind and good soul.

Ed Kenny

August 6, 2023

David, Kathleen, Phyllis and Judi; my deepest condolences. Janet was such a wonderful person. I´m blessed that I had an opportunity to meet her.

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