Jane Creelman Graiko's Obituary
Jane Graiko, beloved wife of Ron, finished life’s journey recently after a courageous eight year battle with a series of rare and complex neurological conditions. Jane was able to make the appropriate adjustment to each setback as various faculties were compromised during her illness and never lost her lust for life. Jane was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1948. She moved to Tampa, Florida, with her husband, in 2011.
She graduated from Mary Manse College in Toledo, Ohio and received a Master’s degree from the University of Vermont. Her career began as a teacher in the Toledo area. Later, she was a newspaper reporter and feature writer for the Syracuse Herald and Post Standard. She spent several years working for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation as the editor of the site newsletter at a nuclear power construction site and, as a member of the work force management staff, co-chaired construction meetings and planned and coordinated an open house for workers, staff and family and friends for over 6,000 employees. She owned and operated a country store in Vermont before joining the student career services facility at the University of Vermont where she worked for over twenty years advising students, conducting workshops and job fairs, working with veterans and medical school applicants and other administrative functions. She worked as the McNair Scholars’ program start up coordinator for four additional years, at UVM, where she advised qualifying students in the pursuit of post graduate work while providing incentives and facilities to promote those goals.
Jane was an avid reader who enjoyed her Kindle Fire for reading, surfing the internet, sending emails and monitoring Facebook. She wrote two novels as part of a trilogy and was working on the third which will forever remain unfinished. As the 2010 recipient of the Ralph Nading Hill literary prize she was pleased to be placed in the company of previous recipients of the award which was co-sponsored by Green Mountain Power Corporation and Vermont Life magazine. She was as an Air Force brat and traveled the world with her family and lived for several years in Germany and then Japan.
Jane was predeceased by her parents James and Constance Creelman and is survived by her brothers James Creelman, a resident of Idaho, and John Creelman (wife Annette) who reside in Rhode Island and her sister Constance Paquin (husband Donald) who reside in Florida. Jane has a daughter, Debbi Stone, who resides in Florida with her husband Kevin and daughter Olivia, beloved granddaughter of Jane. She also has a son, Ronald Jr., who resides in Okinawa, Japan with his wife Ikumi and daughter Hannah, also beloved granddaughter of Jane.
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