Janet Gaven Orr died peacefully on January 24th, 2026, after suffering a stroke.
She was born on December 3rd, 1938 in Hoboken, N.J., to Joseph and Elizabeth McLaughlin Gaven.
She and her brother, Richard, were raised in Nutley and then Bloomfield, N.J., and made much-loved summer visits to her mother's family at the Jersey Shore. Janet graduated from Immaculate Conception High School and the Katharine Gibbs School, both in Montclair.
After working as a secretary in New York City she married John A. Orr in 1958, and had three children: Thomas, Elizabeth and Susan. The family lived on Norwood Avenue, Upper Montclair, where she began gardening in earnest, growing roses and tomatoes and spectacular hollyhocks along the driveway. Janet was closely involved with the Bradford School PTA, the Cub Scouts, Peewee hockey, and the social life of the neighborhood.
In the mid-1970s, newly single, Janet went to work in the front office of Montclair High School. She fielded phone calls, read the daily announcements, acted as bursar to student clubs and athletics, tended her African Violets, and with humor and patience dealt with an endless stream of teenage students and their parents. She loved all of it. It is believed that she never took a single sick day in more than 25 years.
In her early 40s Janet discovered a passion for hiking and travel, which started with weekend walks in Ramapo Reservation and Harriman State Park with her great friends Eric Anderson and Bob Davis, and led to decades of adventures with an expanding group of walkers, climbers, and cross-country skiers, many of whom she met through the Appalachian Mountain Club. She trekked hut-to-hut in New Hampshire, skied in Vermont, scaled an active volcano (Mount Etna) in Sicily, walked in the French and Swiss Alps, cruised in Alaska, and rafted and slept under the stars for eight days in the Grand Canyon.
After retiring, Janet became a volunteer driver for the Red Cross (many of the "elderly" she assisted were not much older than she was), weeded and planted at the Iris Gardens in Mountainside Park, and began a longtime volunteer job at the Van Vleck House, working alongside her good friend Lois Wisniewski She never missed an interesting program at The Adult School, learned to Zoom for her book club, and had recently become involved with a group of retired Montclair High School teachers and staff members, among them her friend Diana Lunin, whose home in Rhode Island was the site of many jolly gatherings. She walked regularly in Brookdale Park with her friend Lois.
Janet's time as a grandmother began in 1993 with the arrival of Emilie, followed by Alexandre, Maya, Jack, and Anderson. She was a devoted Bama/Grandma who jumped into this role with her typical energy but with two caveats: "No diapers" ( a rule she immediately broke) and "I don't do Emergency Rooms" (she would have, but luckily never had to). Janet noted their academic, athletic and artistic accomplishments with great pride, and loved to see them all together at Christmas. She was fortunate to watch them grow from little kids to beautiful, caring, smart young adults.
Janet is survived by her son Tom and daughter -in-law Judy, and their children Maya, Jack and Anderson; daughter Liz and son-in-law George Foy and their children Emilie and Alexandre; and daughter Susan.
She is also survived by her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Lucy Gale Gaven, along with nephews Glenn Gaven, Phil Gaven, nieces Cathy Gaven and Anne Murphy, and their children. She was always fond of her nieces and nephews by marriage, Steve, Jeff, Tony, Julie and Carl Flanders, and their spouses and children
Janet was predeceased by Liz and George's baby son, Olivier Nicholas Foy, and by Rich and Lucy's son, Steve Gaven.
Janet's dearest lifelong friends Jacki Sauer Friedsam, Mary Duffy Bissinger, and Manny Rodgers, as well as numerous cousins, also remain.
Janet sent birthday cards and balanced her checkbook right up until early 2026, and had the same phone number from the early days on Ridgewood Avenue. Her Tollhouse cookies were enviably perfect every time. She loved good books, dark chocolate, stinky cheese, Jeopardy, all flowers except for orange ones, and her little house on Grove Street. She continued to drive to Cape Cod and Maine by herself, and only at age 86 was convinced to hire a cleaning lady. In her later years she enjoyed a Jack Daniels on the rocks at 6pm, and sometimes a refill. She was never happier than poking at a roaring fire, dreaming away.
Whether you knew her as Jan, Bama/Grandma, B-babes, A.J., M.O. or Mom, Janet was lovely and delightful, a wonderful mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and mother-in law, an uncommonly kind and thoughtful neighbor, colleague, and friend. Janet was firmly set in her routines and convictions, yet was instinctively curious, forbearing and tolerant. She was always moral, scrupulously honest, and true to herself. She will be forever loved and missed.
In Janet's honor, take a nice walk, smile, and pause to appreciate all of life's good stuff. Donations in her memory can be made to the Montclair Foundation / Van Vleck House & Gardens,
https://montclairfoundation.org/donate/
A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday May 17th at 2pm at the Van Vleck House in Montclair.