DAN WARNER'S WIFE, JANET WARNER, PASSES AWAY IN FLORIDA

 

                                      JANET WARNER

Dan Warner’s wife passes away

 

Former BJ managing editor Dan Warner’s wife, Janet Warner, passed away Monday, December 11 in Fort Myers, Florida.

 

Janet, who came from Elyria into Dan’s life,  published two small newspapers in Maine. Janet and Dan moved to Florida in 2002.

 

She founded and ran a soup kitchen at Church of the Cross in Fort Myers.

 

Dan and Janet were married for 64 years.

 

Dan was at the BJ from 1959 to 1969. He was a junior reporter in the Kent bureau, then copy editor, State editor and City editor before becoming the managing editor who, at publisher Ben Maidenburg’s instruction, negotiated salary terms with me that brought me to the BJ for 26 years as assistant State Desk editor under marvelous whirling dervish Pat Englehart, then makeup editor, newsroom computer coordinator when the BJ switched from typewriters to computer keyboards and, finally, TV Editor who gave birth to Channels, the BJ’s weekly TV guide.

 

My time at the BJ was the happiest and most fortunate of my 42-year newspaper career, mainly because millionaire owner John Shively Knight treated janitor to publisher with the same respect and dignity.

 

Dan left the BJ for the Philadelphia Inquirer where, not surprisingly, he became managing editor there, too.

 

As editor of the Eagle-Tribune, a regional newspaper covering Massacusetts and New Hampshire, he guided his troops to a Pulitzer Prize for general news reporting.

 

In “retirement,” Dan taught writing at Boston University, wrote a column for 17 years at the News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., and handled editorial writing and investigative reporting assignments.

Dan once wrote:

“Honest day-to-day reporting wind trust and admiration from the readers. The sensational stuff sold newspapers for a day.

“Hard-nosed reporting on the ill deeds, weaknesses and foibles of the establishment were both celebrated and expected from the readers.”

Indeed, Dan. Kudos to your career and my condolences on the passing of Janet.  

Dan and Janet have two children, Dr. Melinda Warner, a pediatric neuropsychologist in Beverly, Massachusetts, and another Dan, assistant provost of Lehigh University.

 

Janet’s obituary:

 

Janet Warner, 84, resident of Shell Point in Fort Myers, passed away Monday, December 11, 2023. Janet was the wife of Dan Warner, former Fort Myers News-Press columnist, and served as youth minister and volunteer coordinator in MA. Before retiring, Janet was publisher of two small newspapers in Maine. Janet and Dan have called Florida their home since 2002.

Janet loved scrap-booking, sewing, cooking for others, and tending to her garden. She was a dedicated philanthropist, giving many hours of her time to church, Marriage Encounter, the East Fort Myers Rotary Club, and founding and running a soup kitchen at Church of the Cross in Ft. Myers.

Janet was born to Jerry and Josephine (Soja) Kostyo in Elyria, Ohio. She is preceded in passing by her parents, and her only sibling, a younger sister, Joyce Jones.

Janet leaves her memory with her beloved survivors, husband of 64 years, Daniel J. Warner; son Daniel A. Warner and his wife Tracy Spann of Easton, PA; daughter Melinda S. Warner of Salem, MA, as well as many nieces and nephews in her native state of Ohio.

Notes of condolence can be added to the Fort Myers Memorial Gardens website.