Loading...A memorial service for Janet Irwin, editor emeritus for the Diocese of Kentucky, will be at 4 p.m. (EST) Sunday, Dec. 4, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 2233 Woodbourne Avenue in Louisville. A reception will follow in Collins Hall.
She retired as editor of the diocese's monthly newspaper, Episcopal News, in 1997 but continued to write for it and its replacement, the quarterly news magazine Episcopal Kentucky, until June 2010, when she retired from the diocesan staff a third time (She served as the newspaper's interim editor between 2002 to 2003.)
She is well known in Episcopal and interfaith communities in Louisville and beyond, as a teacher at St. Francis in Goshen, Christian formation director at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Louisville, a writer and board member for Forward Movement Press, and an interfaith advocate. She was a founder and served as an executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace in Louisville.
Following is a copy of her obituary, published on November 25 in The Courier-Journal.
IRWIN, JANET LOUISE COOPER, 78, educator, editor, activist and former director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, died on Saturday, November 19, 2011.
Janet taught several generations of students in the Jefferson County Public Schools, notably at Seneca High School, where she taught Spanish. She later joined the faculty at St. Francis School in Goshen. Multilingual and at home in diverse cultures, Janet taught German at the college level at Indiana University Southeast. She served for nearly a decade as Director of Christian Education at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, where she was a devoted member. An accomplished writer of poems, prayers, essays, and impassioned letters to the editor, Janet also worked for many years as editor of the Episcopal News. Her original reflections on spirituality and social justice appeared in publications including Louisville's LEO and the Episcopal quarterly Forward Day by Day.
She was a faithful and generous friend to misfits, spiritual seekers, opera singers and people working to change the world for the better, a fan of National Public Radio, U of L basketball and the operas of Mozart, a lover of zinnias, good tomatoes, the Austrian Alps, fractals, mystery novels, and evil cats.
The calm and dignity she showed in the face of her illness were a final lesson and a gift to her family (Alexander Irwin, Laurie Wen, Catherine Irwin, Stephen Driesler) and to her many, many friends. She will also be greatly missed by the lovely family of her former husband Archibald Eric Irwin of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, December 4, 2011 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 2233 Woodbourne Ave.
Instead of flowers you might send a donation to one of Janet's favorite charities: Interfaith Paths to Peace, Partners in Health, Dare to Care, Wellspring or the ACLU.
