In Memoriam: June Janda

This past Friday morning, June 26, Jenkins Law Library lost one of our most loyal and dedicated staff members, June A. Janda. June was hired at Jenkins over 34 years ago as a bookkeeper. Through the years she took accounting and other classes towards a degree, was mentored by both Regina Smith, Jenkins’ previous Executive Director and Kathy Coon, Jenkins’ former Deputy Director to become Jenkins’ Accounting Manager. But June wasn’t just our Accounting Manager. She was extremely dedicated to Jenkins and she made sure to pay attention to other aspects of the library to ensure that Jenkins would continue to provide the best services to our members and the public. Most importantly June wanted to make sure that Jenkins would be around for another 200 years.

Nancy Garner and Ida Weingram, the current Co-Executive Directors, used to lovingly joke that June was the unofficial third Executive Director. Her vast institutional knowledge was very beneficial to them in their new roles as Co-Executive Directors. June wasn't content to be just a nine-to-five employee -- she arrived early each day and worked most weekends. When the capability of working from home was introduced, June jumped on that and bought the equipment she needed so that the days she wasn’t able to come into the library, she worked from home.

Over the years June developed an interest in HR functions. She was very proactive in discovering and implementing ways to provide additional benefits to our employees, without any extra cost to the library. She honed her Internet searching skills to the extent that whenever she proposed something, we laughingly would say, “Go Google it.” She always found the perfect website to explain what we needed. She would then utilize her exceptional Excel spreadsheet skills to make the numbers work.

Although she had many health challenges during her years at Jenkins, they never stopped her from performing her job. June loved Jenkins, her work and especially the people. She will be sorely missed.

The following are accolades from some of her colleagues:

June was such a great person. She loved Jenkins so much, and cared so much for us.

It was a true pleasure to work with June. She lit up the office with her smiles and positivity. Jenkins will not be the same without her.

June truly was a remarkable person.

She was always so kind and generous of her time with me.

I enjoyed working with her. She will be missed.

She was a great person.

She was an absolute pleasure to work with over the years and she will be forever missed.

I know she was a really big part of Jenkins and was loved by many staff members.

It makes me very sad that she's no longer with us.

She was such a thoughtful, kind, sympathetic, devoted and funny person. She was one of a kind.

She was a kind, friendly and a nice person. She will be missed by many.