Janet Morris

July 10, 1922 - March 20, 2022

Janet McClanahan Morris passed away peacefully on March 20, 2022, at the age of 99 years. Janet was born on July 10, 1922, in Sacramento, California. She spent her early childhood in Honolulu and Seattle. After her family moved to Hillsborough, Janet attended Burlingame High School and Stanford University; she was the first student body president at both the high school and the university. After graduating from Stanford in 1943, she worked briefly for the federal government in Washington DC and, in 1944, married Walter K. Morris, whom she met at Burlingame High, and who was an officer in the US Army Air Corps. Janet and Walter lived at several air bases in the South before returning to San Mateo, after the war, and began to raise a family. In the early 1960s, they and their sons, Randy and Scott, moved to New York and later to London where Walt, then a Standard Oil of California executive, was assigned to positions in those cities. The family returned to Hillsborough in 1967.

Janet was an indefatigable traveler. She circumnavigated the globe numerous times and visited more than 100 countries on trips spanning seven decades. She enjoyed visiting her oceanside condominium in Kauai annually. She loved to fly as well. She began aviation lessons when she was 16 at Mills Field (now San Francisco International Airport). During college, she flew for the Civil Air Patrol to spot Japanese submarines along the Pacific Coast. Later in life, she became a licensed balloonist. Her name appears on the Wall of Honor at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Virginia.

Janet was a founding member of the San Mateo Parks and Recreation Foundation and the Hillsborough Beautification Foundation. She served on the Advisory Board of the Peninsula Open Space Trust and was the first president of the San Mateo auxiliary to the Children’s Hospital at Stanford. She was also active as an officer or board member of the Crippled Children’s Auxiliary of San Mateo County, the Institute for International Education and American Woman for International Understanding.

Janet was an enthusiastic gardener and an avid reader. She was known not only for her intelligence and her organizing talents, but also for having an irreverent sense of humor, an impeccable sense of fashion, and a discerning eye for art. Most importantly, she was a loving wife and a devoted mother, grandmother and great grandmother; she was a loyal friend and was generous and kind to all whom she met.

Janet is survived by her two sons, Randall Morris, MD, a research physician in Carmel, and Scott Morris, an attorney in Seattle, their wives, Kay and Abbie, as well as grandchildren Christine, Robert, Devon and Lily, and great grandchildren Evan and Rory. A service will be planned in the future. Donations in her memory may be made to Peninsula Open Space Trust, 222 High Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301; Hillsborough Beautification Foundation, 1600 Floribunda Ave., Hillsborough, CA 94010; and the Hillsborough Garden Club, P.O. Box 209, Burlingame CA 94011-0209.