Janice Elaine Harwood - Obituary

JANICE "JAN" ELAINE HARWOOD

JULY 25, 1931-JULY 2, 2025

Even if Jan Harwood merely bore passive witness –spoiler alert: she didn’t– to all that has happened in the world over the last century, her 94 years of living might be remarkable enough. But the story of her life is about more than longevity. Raised in depression-era Kansas City, Missouri, Jan was a bright student who questioned the status quo, especially where it seemed born of ignorance or greed. Early on she worked as a copy girl for the Kansas City Star newspaper and enrolled in college to study journalism at the University of Missouri, before opting to study philosophy instead. Later, working as a typist for the United Nations in New York, Jan was greatly inspired by a chance opportunity to personally meet Eleanor Roosevelt, widely admired as the most politically active and influential first lady in U.S. history. Like her hero, Jan would go on to become a prolific author, political activist, and humanitarian. Thrice married and divorced, Jan’s second and most consequential marriage was to a California boy turned New York starving artist. In the mid 1950’s, after her husband—the sculptor Stuart Harwood--won a Fulbright scholarship to study bronze casting in Florence, Jan discovered her everlasting love for Italy. For the rest of her life, Jan dreamily rekindled her romance with Italy as often as her circumstances would allow. Jan’s active opposition to nuclear weapons and war took root after having children during the horrifying lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. With her three small kids in tow, Jan engaged in picketing, peace marches and leafleting campaigns throughout the 1960s. During this tumultuous period the young family moved west to the San Francisco Bay Area, but by the Summer of Love her marriage came to its painful end. Jan struggled with a broken heart and life as a single mom while working and attending grad school to become a professional therapist. Jan’s accomplished career as a social worker was mostly dedicated to helping populations in need or crisis (i.e. incarcerated women, indigent persons with mental illness, etc.). Jan moved from Menlo Park to Santa Cruz, California at age 65, and there she found her happily-ever-after place. Jan was quoted in an article in the Santa Cruz Lookout in July 2024, saying “I had been a psychiatric social worker for 30 years, and I really loved my job. But I was very tired of being responsible for so many fragile human lives,” she said. “So it was such a freedom to move over here, and do everything that I had put off doing.” In addition to popular retirement pursuits like writing (see “Dangerous Women: A Raging Granny Mystery” and other titles), painting, gardening, and playing her piano, Jan also liked to grow Monarch butterflies from caterpillars and set them free. Gratefully ensconced in her carefully tended garden at her comfortable little house in her beloved Santa Cruz, Jan was ready to put a colorful, rewarding, and joyous exclamation point on a life deeply lived. Jan found a perfect vehicle to showcase her talent for songwriting and love of singing and combine it with her activism. She was a proud co-founder of the Santa Cruz chapter of the Raging Grannies. (Roughly 50 “gaggles” of Raging Grannies exist across Canada and the U.S.) Jan reveled in writing satirical protest lyrics for her local gaggle of kindred older women to sing at demonstrations, rallies, courthouse steps, public meetings and festivals, always wearing classic granny garb (flowered floppy hats, aprons, sun umbrellas, etc.) In 2005, Jan had an important full-circle moment in her life when she spoke on behalf of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at the United Nations for the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Jan was also willing to take the heat when necessary to make her point. “I think I’ve been arrested 11 times,” Jan told the Santa Cruz GoodTimes in 2017. As the GoodTimes reported, most of those arrests were at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where there was an annual protest on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Over time, Jan’s tireless activism, writings and occasional book readings at Bookshop Santa Cruz, and especially her raucous public performances with the Raging Grannies earned her local legend status. In 2021, Jan was honored by the Santa Cruz Chapter of the Northern California ACLU with a special Lifetime Achievement Award (and the Santa Cruz Raging Grannies performed at the award ceremony). Jan also received a lifetime achievement award in 2017 from WILPF for her anti-nuclear work. In a 2018 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jan ruefully acknowledged the rising threats to peace posed by the (first) Trump administration, but also offered a message of hope and a call to action: “It is never hopeless.” Despite the current state of affairs, she said: “Now is the time to have your voice heard. We are going to need everyone during these dark times.” Jan persisted with her voice as long as she possibly could, only recently reducing her activism due to the natural limitations of her advanced age. Her grown children, grandkids, other surviving family, and many longtime friends grieve her passing. But they also celebrate the memory of a remarkable spirit who only seemed to grow wiser, bolder, and happier with time. It is comforting to know that Jan was ultimately the fearless narrator of her best life story, and, when it had all been properly sung, danced, and cherished, she was prepared to gracefully accept its inevitable conclusion. She will most certainly rest in peace.