Jane Gates-Capizzi

E Jane Gates Capizzi was born February 4th, 1929 in Colchester, Vermont to Gordon and Louva Gates. She grew up in Chelsea, Vermont; a beautiful, small village in Central Vermont, where she learned to ski, skate, tap dance and play the piano. Her dad taught her to fish and hunt at an early age. Time was free to roam & play in the hills, and swim & fish in the brooks. She also joined the Epworth League, which gave her the basis for a lifetime of active participation in affairs of the church. She was a devout and practicing Congregationalist, being a member of churches in Jeffersonville VT, and Corvallis OR, and was a retired President of the Congregational Women's Fellowship. She also enjoyed summer vacations at Teel-a-wooket, a church camp in Roxbury VT. She left Chelsea at the end of her junior year to enroll at Burlington High School, as her father became the head of the Dairy Department at the University of Vermont (UVM). She attended & graduated from University of Vermont as a Clothing & Textiles Major with an elective in modern art in 1950. During her time at University she learned to play the pipe organ in The Ira Allen Chapel. She was a proud member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and would later serve as president of the Oregon Alumnae Club. Upon graduation, Jane accepted a position as a 4-H extension agent in Barnstable Massachusetts, where she enjoyed being in sync with the tides and seasons of a seaside village, also playing the pipe organ in the local church. At a convention in Colorado she was recruited for the same position in Douglas County Oregon, and 1953 found her driving westward, with her 15-yr old brother Steve riding shotgun. It was overwhelming at the time to represent a county larger than the state of Connecticut. Roseburg had a rough logging atmosphere and the North Umpqua River. Here Jane learned to fly and fly fishing, falling in love with the Umpqua River valley. Jane met her future husband, Joe Capizzi, an entomologist, at 4-H camp, where he taught as the Bug Man. They married in September of 1958 and honeymooned by going on a freighter across the Atlantic and then on a trek around the world. Returning to the United States they settled in Salem OR, Joe resumed his profession as an entomologist, and Jane became a mother to a son and daughter, Jeffrey and Elizabeth. Soon it was off to Yakima WA where they acquired many lifelong friends. Settled in Corvallis in 1965, Jane joined the OSU flying club and the 99s International Organization of Women Pilots. She judged 4-H exhibits at fairs and grange contests for years with a focus on food and textiles. She took lessons in ceramics, painting, belly dancing, and tap dancing at the Corvallis Art Center. She served as a 4-H leader and later as coordinator for the OSU state 4-H International Foreign Youth Exchange program, helping top 4-H'ers to represent the USA in foreign countries and helped incoming foreign youth representatives into 4-H Host Families 1980-82, Jane was elected Senior President of The Isaac Walton League of America and visited chapters throughout Oregon, attending national meetings. 1982 found Jane appointed to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Game Commission by Governor Atiyeh. The Commission consumed Jane’s time and attention for eight years, and was the first lady commissioner to complete two full terms. She served in various leadership roles in the Congregational Church and Home Economics Association. She was extremely proud of family’s ancestral contribution to Vermont and the United States, and was Honorary Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In the 1990s, Jane and Joe enjoyed retirement and traveled extensively, before Joe’s death in 2001. Jane loved to spend time in Vermont with family, where she had built a hilltop cabin on the old family farm facing Mt Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak. She loved to sit on the deck of her cabin and watch the mountain change color at sunset. Thunder storms were a special thing. In 2005 Bob Burgess moved from Vermont to partner with Jane, her Chelsea High School Sweetheart. Some of her other successes were representing UVM at the installation of the new President of Portland State University with UVM being the fifth oldest university present. The UVM basketball team sent her a letter of praise for the delicious cookies she baked to support the team when they played OSU. She was an active participant and contributor to the associations of UVM. Hunting and fishing were her passion. No child was too small to teach to fish. She particularly enjoyed fishing the coast rivers, especially the North Umpqua, sliding into Zane Grey‘s waders when the water got cold. Jane leaves behind: her sweetheart Bob, her son Jeffrey and his family Susan Douglas (wife) and Marina Capizzi & Darius Capizzi (children), her daughter Elizabeth and partner Chip Bates, her sisters’ Sue Perry of Cambridge VT and Mary Lou Williamson of Springhill FL, and her brother Steve Gates of Sealy TX. A memorial service will be held at 2 PM on March 12th at the First Congregational United Church of Christ. Notes & Remembrances may be sent to McHenry Funeral Home and they will be forwarded to the family.

Tributes

Jane Gates-Capizzi

February 4, 1929 - February 25, 2017