Janice Carol Rosier

Janice Carol (Driscoll) Rosier passed away peacefully on July 6, 2023 with family by her side. Janice, one of five daughters, was born November 18, 1937, to Earl and Leona Driscoll in the town of Waukesha, Wisconsin. After graduating HS in 1956, she was accepted to Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in Milwaukee.

To attend, Janice and her mother, Leona, bought a wristwatch, which was required for nursing school, no small purchase at that time. She graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1958. In June of that year, she married Joseph Rosier.

Janice and Joe moved to Gainesville, Florida where she worked at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida as a Registered Nurse while Joe was a student at UF. Their first son, Chris, was born in Gainesville. The young family continued to grow, with Jeff and then Jody born in subsequent years and later Julie. The family finally settled in Maitland, FL in 1970 and later moved to Winter Park. As the children became teenagers, Janice pursued a college degree.

Janice graduated from The University of Central Florida in 1977 with a BA in Political Science. She fondly remembered her university days, saying that her son Jeff helped her pass algebra. In 1984 she received her Masters of Public Health, graduating with Honors. Janice worked in a variety of Medical Case Management positions and always maintained an interest in health care and medicine.

In 2004, she moved to Raleigh, NC to be closer to her young grandson Dylan and to eventually retire.

Retirement for Janice meant finding ways to give back to her community. She was always a hard worker and she shared her wide variety of skills. For fourteen years (2006-2020) Janice volunteered with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, assisting children and families at risk of hunger. Janice started out sorting food donations for the children’s programs, “Backpack Buddies”, and “School Pantry”, many times accompanied by her grandson, Dylan. In 2010 she and another Food Shuttle volunteer were honored by Wake County for outstanding service to the community. In 2015 Janice brought her organizational skills and keen eye over to the administrative side, when she assumed responsibility for logging donated food, data entry, and established policies and procedures for warehouse and driving staff. Food Shuttle founder, Rev. Jill Staton Bullard called Janice an “un-sung hunger hero”—impacting thousands of lives without fanfare.

Janice also volunteered at the Village District Public library, sorting and shelving books. And she used her creative skills to sew a wide variety of items for The Raleigh School’s classrooms, including doll clothes and capes. Janice was always friendly and interested in neighbors and people she would meet. She was smart and well read.

Up until just a few weeks before she died, Janice walked twice a day around her neighborhood and tended her patch of sunny flowers. If you went by for a visit, there was always a jigsaw puzzle to work on and a pile of library books. Her independence was important to her and she was able to live an active and independent life until the end.

Janice was preceded in death by her parents, former husbands, Joe Rosier and Mel Savitz, sisters Dorothy and Mary, and daughter, Jody.

She is survived by sisters Betty and Susie, daughter Julie (Chris Bradley) sons Christopher (Beth) and Jeff (Maggie Dawes), and grandchildren Dylan, Olean, Jabe, Taylor, and Julian.

In lieu of flowers, she requested donations to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle of Raleigh. www.foodshuttle.org

A family gathering will be held to celebrate her life.