Janice Mitchell Gandy

Janice Mitchell Gandy

April 13, 1946 - June 30, 2024

A celebration of Janice Gandy's wonderful life as a scholar, traveler, mother,

wife, and sharer of her vast knowledge of history, culture, art history and

birds of the world both in the university classroom and on social media

reaching around the globe.

Janice grew up in Denver, Colorado, along with her younger brother Bob, with

parents Walter and Margaret (Peggy)Mitchell. in the public schools there she was always a top student and devoted player of the clarinet.

after high school, she attended and graduated from Northern Colorado

University with a bachelor's degree in history.

She then went on to Arizona State University and majored in art history for her

master's degree. Near the beginning of her attendance she met Maurice Gandy,

a fellow master's student in a French class on the first day.

they courted and married and upon her (and his) graduations with master's

degrees they went to the University of Wisconsin branch in Stevens Point,

Wisconsin for her first fulltime university teaching job (she enrolled in a

doctoral program in art history at one point, but health issues ruined her

chance for completion.)

the Wisconsin job was a temporary fill-in job for a year, so she was searching for a

permanent position elsewhere. In Maurice's job hunting research he found an art history position at the University of South Alabama (a nearly new school at

that time.) if there is destiny, she was destined for the job, as the chairman of the USA art history department called them one Saturday from a hospital in

Milwaukee where his mother was hospitalized. He asked if they could drive to the hospital the next day on Sunday and interview for the job. They did and had the interview in the hospital cafeteria.

She was hired as a result and spent a full career at USA as an art history

professor (her performance was so outstanding she was upgraded to professor

without having the doctorate.)

The couple raised two daughters, Maribeth and Megan. they attended St. Paul's

school and both are doing well in their careers (Maribeth at Georgia Tech as

a researcher, administrator and professor with a doctorate in computer

science) and the younger daughter as the director of a kindergarten program in

an Atlanta Public School. now, Maribeth Coleman (married to her high school

sweetheart, "Ding" Coleman), the couple have one daughter, Ruth (now 12).

While teaching in a long career at USA, Janice loved her students and kept in

touch with and sponsored many as they went on to higher degrees.

Upon her retirement she traveled extensively to the cultural centers she loved-in major cities in America and Europe-London, Paris, and her "own" place, Rome.

As an offshoot of this vast cultural experience, she became in recent years an

internet expert on history, art history and travel, especially to Rome. Hundreds

of soon-to-be travelers have consulted her from around the world about how

to travel and to enjoy great cultural centers. many have become permanent

friends.

In addition, she employed her lifetime interest and personal research in birds and bird habitats around the world in a similar fashion, identifying species on

request and furnishing striking pictures of most of them.

Up until only about three weeks ago, she maintained this covey of modern-style, long-distance friends.

Then she passed away at home on June 30, 2024, during a short, unexpected bout

with what may have been an unidentified infection.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your interest and attendance today

(July 7, 2024) at this Memorial Visitation and celebration of her 78 years of living.

The family will receive friends from 1 PM to 3 PM Sunday afternoon July 7, 2024 at Mobile Memorial Gardens Funeral Home.

Written by her loving husband of 50 years, Maurice Gandy