FURNISS, Janet
On Sunday August 22, 2021, at Dunedin Hospital, of cancer; aged 85 years.

Much loved sister of Glenda, wife of Keith, mother of Graham, and Kathy, grandmother of Sam, Ben, and Izzi.

“We all miss you so much and we will remember you always”.

- A private interment took place on Thursday, September 2nd and a memorial service will be arranged at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Federation of University Women (Otago Branch) would be appreciated.

Messages to Mr K Furniss, 8 Elder Street, Dunedin Central, Dunedin 9016 or on Janet’s tribute page above.

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Mrs Janet Furniss, known to her friends as Jan, was born in Leeds, England in 1935, the elder of two daughters of Arthur and Glencoe Pratt. After attending Leeds Girls High School, she graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc in Mathematics before completing secondary school teacher training at the University of London.

A child of the depression and Second World War, Jan was imbued with a deep sense of community service and was a committed member of the Girl Guides. She soon met a dashing young Scout Master named Keith and they were married in Chapel Allenton, Leeds, England in 1958. They lived in Bradford for four years, where she taught at Bolling Girls’ Grammar School and together they ran the local scout troop, but she had caught the travel bug during her student years, which took her to Europe, including France, Switzerland, Norway and Finland, and Jan and Keith shared this adventuresome spirit. It wasn’t long before they packed up their bags and caught a ship to Canada.

The wide open spaces and clean air of Saskatchewan was a great place to start a family and Jan committed her time and considerable energies to raising their two children, Graham and Katherine, and turning their rambling 4-storied house with wild backyard into a comfortable home and productive garden. Perhaps as a result of necessity during the war years, frugality, efficiency and inventiveness had become ingrained in Jan’s psyche. She could create seemingly endless garments, adorned with elaborate cable and fairisle designs, from a single sweater, repeatedly unraveling and re-knitting it as it became too small or worn out at the elbows. And she gave a whole new meaning and taste to the Stone Soup fable, with a large pot of hearty, nutritious bouillabaisse bubbling on the stove throughout the winter.

But this was the tense Cold War period following the Cuban Missile Crisis and somehow living right between the US and the USSR didn’t seem like such a great idea to Jan and Keith. She co-ordinated a thousand details with efficiency and flair to move the entire family Down Under.

Jan and her family arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1970. The wonderful combination of old English-style colonial buildings, rolling green countryside and can-do Kiwi spirit felt familiar yet refreshingly new so they put down permanent roots. Jan was soon teaching at Otago Girls’ High School, becoming Head of the Mathematics Department just a few years later.

She was a natural and highly dedicated teacher, devoting hours to lesson preparation and making herself available for extra tutoring and support. She very much enjoyed helping the girls with their education and careers. Her determination to keep her classes in order and learning effectively earned her the nickname, ‘the Dragon’, amongst some of her students, but those very same students, as adults, would stop her in the street to thank her for how much she had taught them, not just about mathematics, but also about self-discipline, hard-work, commitment and achieving goals, whatever those goals may be. Dragons are strong, fearless, loyal and auspiciously powerful. She was our family’s dragon.

In addition to classroom teaching, she was very active in the New Zealand Federation of University Women, where she worked tirelessly to promote better education and opportunities for women and made many enduring friendships.

After nearly 30 years commitment to the education of young women, Jan retired, in 1994, to devote her energies to developing a cherry orchard, with Keith, at their property in Earnscleugh, Central Otago.

In 2020, she was diagnosed with cancer and, despite putting up a valiant fight, she finally succumbed to the disease on 22 August 2021.

She is survived by her sister, Glenda, and by her husband Keith, their two children, Graham and Katherine, and their three grandchildren Samantha, Benjamin and Isabella. She is loved by us all very deeply and missed intensely. She will be with us in our hearts always.

Hope and Sons

Funeral Directors

Dunedin - Mosgiel

Service Information: Date: Time: Location: A Memorial Service will be held at a later date