Janice Reis Battee
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow
the death July 15, 2005 of Janice Reis Battee of East Falmouth at
JML Care Center in Falmouth after a long battle with cancer. She was 74.
Born March 17, 1931 in Fall River, MA, Janice A. Reis grew up in New
Bedford and was graduated from New Bedford High School in 1949. She
moved to New York and worked for the Gramatan National Bank from
February to November 1953, moving to California at the end of that year
to work as a bookkeeper and assistant office manager for the
advertising agency Smalley, Levitt & Smith Inc. in Los
Angeles. She returned to New York in 1957 and worked as a
bookkeeper for Whitaker Pharmacy, Inc. in Hartsdale from 1957 to 1961.
After moving to Falmouth in 1961, Jan joined the Institution staff as a
bookkeeper in May 1961, working for Harvey MacKillop in Challenger. She
was named Payroll Clerk in 1968, promoted to Payroll Supervisor in 1971
and to Payroll Administrator in 1977. She retired from WHOI in
July 1986, returning on as casual basis in 1989 to work with Shelley
Dawicki and the Public Information Office staff during the first few
years of the Jason Project. Jan ran the volunteer program, worked
in the Exhibit Center and helped coordinate the 20,000 student and
public visitors who watched the project’s two weeks of live broadcasts
each year at Redfield Auditorium and the Exhibit Center. She remained
in a casual status at WHOI until June 1997.
While at the Institution she was an active member of the Women’s
Committee and the Graded and Marine Personnel Committee, but is perhaps
best remembered for serving as a mentor and teacher to many young women
who joined the Challenger staff, often right out of high school. Jan
wanted them to learn the “WHOI way” right from the start of their
employment, and she was a den mother of sorts to many other young women
at the Institution, prodding them to get active in Institution
activities to meet people or join local civic organizations and
contribute to the community. Until recently she joined the former staff
of the Payroll Office for an annual luncheon, and attended other Institution events.
After retiring from WHOI in 1986 Jan worked at St. Anthony’s Rectory in
East Falmouth as a bookkeeper part time for several years. She was also
a longtime member and officer of the Falmouth Business &
Professional Women’s Organization, serving as president three times and
as a district and state officer. She was active in other community
organizations, continuing work for domestic violence awareness, one of
her BPW programs. She was a past chair of the Board of Directors for
Volunteer in Public Schools (VIPS) in Falmouth, past president of
Falmouth Band Parents and the Falmouth Theater Guild, a Camp Fire Girls
leader, member of the Upper Cape Domestic Violence Committee, and a
member of the “Save Highfield” committee.
Survivors include her husband, Howard Battee of East Falmouth; two
daughters, Shelly Battee of Mashpee and Terry Thompson of Marshfield;
and a granddaughter, Leslie Burghardt of Mashpee.
A funeral mass will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26, in
St. Anthony’s Church, 167 East Falmouth Highway (Route 28) in East
Falmouth.
Donations in Jan Battee’s memory may be made to the Falmouth Service Center, P. O. Box 208, Falmouth, MA 02541.
