Janet Butler Haugaard

Janet Butler Haugaard died at home on March 23, 2024, at the age of 91. She was born in New York City, NY in 1932, to Mary McKee Butler and the Right Reverend John Vernon Butler, Jr.. She attended the Lincoln School in Providence, Miss Fine's School in Princeton, then Bryn Mawr and later Barnard (Columbia) where she earned a B.A. in 1954, the same year when she married William P. Haugaard. At NYU, she earned a M.A. in 1961. From 1962 to 1987, she was a professor of literature at the University of Puerto Rico. In 1980, she earned a PhD from Cornell University, specializing in Caribbean Literature, her dissertation on George Lamming. In 1987, she became Assistant to the President at St. Mary's College of Maryland and later worked as editor and writer. Upon retirement in late 2008, as Editor Emerita, she began researching the president who transformed a female seminary into a college (now SMCM) and ended up writing a book of much wider scope, Historical Tapestry: Adele France and John LaFarge in Southern Maryland. Janet is survived by her sister Mary Vernon Nickerson, and by her daughters Margarita and Mary (Maria). At heart, Janet was a humanist. She enjoyed good clear prose, the labyrinths of research, and the Cape Cod sand-dunes and seals.

A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 18 at Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Mary's City, MD. All are welcome.