The Reverend Jan Evans-Tiller—avid reader and gardener, remembered well for her great devotion to children and religious education—died in Syracuse, New York, on 20 September 2016 at the age of 85.

Jan’s second marriage, to the Rev’d John E. Evans, unexpectedly brought her to a kind of vicarious public advocacy for death with dignity after John became terminally ill and sought the assistance of Dr. Jack Kevorkian to end his life on his own terms. In the course of attendant notoriety in the news media, the Rev’d Ms. Evans-Tiller was quoted in the New York Times for praising her spouse as “a courageous man who had the courage to do what is right.”

Jan Lowe was born in Alabama on 20 August 1931 to Alfred and Alma Lowe, but grew up in upstate New York. She was the valedictorian of her Herkimer (NY) High School class of 1949 and earned a B.A. cum laude in English literature from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1953.

Her religious education career spanned work as a Director of RE, district consultant, Minister of RE, and curriculum author, serving congregations in New York & Michigan. She was ordained 31 May 1987 by the Birmingham Unitarian Church of Bloomfield Hills MI, and retired in 1996.

The Rev’d Alida DeCoster particularly recalls Jan’s “passionate, humorous personality, and her feistiness,” plus the aptness of her own choice to add “Tiller” to her surname. (“She did like to steer the ship.”)

Jan is survived by her daughter Katherine Rugh, to whom notes of condolence may be sent: 102 Milton Ave, Syracuse, NY 13204. Memorial donations are encouraged to the Alzheimer’s Association.