“Notable Genetic Researcher, Red Bank Alumnus”
Dr. Janice A. Egeland, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Lakeland, Florida, passed away in Jackson, July 4, 2023. She recently celebrated her 89th birthday.
Born June 16, 1934, she was the second daughter of Peter A. and Nina L. Egeland of Colts Neck, both deceased. Janice is survived by her sister Nina E. Walzer; one niece N. Diane Benner and her spouse Frank of Perkasie, Pennsylvania; four nephews, John (David) Walzer and his spouse Karen of Freehold, Paul G. Walzer and his spouse Lynn of Howell, Thomas M. Walzer and his spouse Kathryn of Edmonds, Washington, and Peter M. Walzer and his spouse Jean of Jackson. Janice also enjoyed contact and visits with numerous great-nephews, colleagues and many beloved friends.
Janice was a 1952 salutatorian graduate of Red Bank High School. She graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1956 with a B.S. in microbiology and achieved her master’s degree in sociology in 1959. She taught sociology at the College of Liberal Arts and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1958, and general and rural sociology at Franklin and Marshall College. As a fellow in medical genetics affiliated with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she cooperated with the Moore Clinic in a series of culture and genetic studies of the Amish, becoming immersed in the that community. Upon finding that the book of Amish and Mennonite pioneer family lineages needed updating, she undertook the project with the cooperation of the Amish. The Moore Clinic published the updated volume, “Descendants of Christian Fisher and Other Amish-Mennonite Pioneer Families,” Jan. 1, 1972.
In 1967, Janice received her doctorate in medical sociology from Yale University. Her dissertation was based on a five-year ethnographic study of the patterns of health care and health behavior among Old Order Amish, laying the groundwork for her future NIH-affiliated Amish Studies, I & II. These were ground-breaking in terms of her team’s discovery of the genetics of mental illness. Studying family lineages and occurrences of mental illness in a “protected” community like the Amish, with far fewer outside influences, coupled with blood studies of individuals, enabled predictions for future mental illness that could be diagnosed, monitored and treated in a timely manner.
June 15, 1967, Janice was appointed assistant professor of behavioral science, Penn State University College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, making her the first and only woman on the original staff of founding doctors at the newly opened medical center.
Dr. Egeland was published in top medical journals and authored and collaborated on 55 publications. She was affiliated with Yale, the University of Miami and the Miami Miller School of Medicine, Columbia University, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard, the University of Louisville, and Eli Lilly. Her awards for her research are numerous. In 1987 she was the first woman to receive Europe’s top prize in psychiatry from the Anna-Monika Foundation. She also received the Abraham Lincoln Award from the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association, the Rema Lapouse Mental Health Epidemiology Award from the American Public Health Association, and the Victor M. Cannon Award for Research on Manic Depressive Illness presented by the American Mental Health Fund. In 1990 she was awarded the Schoenfeld and the Albert Einstein awards for recognition in the field of psychiatric research.
She was a member of the Pennsylvania German Society, Lancaster Community Historians, American Anthropological Association, Society for Applied Anthropology, American Anthropology, American Sociological Association, and Eastern Sociological Society.
In addition to her intensely involved career, she maintained memberships related to her many outside interests. She was a member of the National Audubon Society and traveled to many birding locations, compiling a robust “lifer list.” She was an avid fly fisher and member of the Delaware Valley Women’s Fly Fishing Association. While living in Florida, she enjoyed collecting seashells, including specimens of rare tree snails. More recently she published a book of her own poetry.
She enjoyed the company of family and friends at her mother’s dining room table overlooking the reservoir in Colts Neck, catching up with family, and entertaining guests at her condo in Lakeland where she enjoyed a rainbow every day in the pond fountain by her porch.
Janice considered herself greatly blessed by many friends and colleagues through her career. Her family takes comfort knowing how fervently and successfully she lived to serve others, expanding knowledge in the fields of psychiatry and genetics. Despite the family’s concern, she continued working until her health declined. She was indeed, a force to be reckoned with… However, with God’s coaxing, she is finally retired.
Visitation with a prayer service was July 12 at the John E. Day Funeral Home, Red Bank. Interment followed at Fair View Cemetery in Middletown. In lieu of flowers, please donate in her name to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at give.michaeljfox.org or to the Parkinson’s Foundation at parkinson.org.
Visit Janice’s memorial website at johnedayfuneralhome.com.
The article originally appeared in the July 20 – 26, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
