Jan D. Klotz

Jan D. Klotz, longtime Ithaca resident and financial aid administrator at Ithaca College, passed away August 30 at Cayuga Medical Center after a brief hospitalization. He was seventy-one.

Jan joined the administration of Ithaca College president James J. Whalen in 1976 as Director of Financial Aid. Jan’s journey to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York began in Beaver Creek, Ohio outside of Dayton, where his parents, Alvin and Evelyn, fostered values of compassion and self-reliance in their four children, of whom Jan was eldest. Alvin was an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, so Jan and his siblings, all of whom survive him, learned early on to embrace peace church tenets of nonviolence, fellowship, and respect for the individual.

Following his graduation in 1969 from Earlham College, a Quaker liberal arts institution in Richmond, Indiana, Jan accepted a position at Keuka College in Keuka Park, NY as an assistant director of admissions, where he worked until 1973. After that, Jan joined the Farm and Wilderness community in Plymouth, Vermont, where he had been a counselor as an undergraduate practicing the “good works” encouraged by his Quaker precepts. F&W provides young people an opportunity to live simply in nature amid the grandeur of the Green Mountains and the Plymouth Valley. As business manager at Farm and Wilderness until 1975, Jan had a broad portfolio that included the care and feeding of kids and teenagers, general management and the honing of his considerable carpentry skills, which he maintained throughout his life. Just last year, Jan and Cindy had a great time in Plymouth as F&W celebrated the 50th anniversary of a cottage residence that Jan and his campers had constructed in 1967. Now themselves in their 60’s, Jan’s campers delighted in his presence and in the fact that their cottage is still standing!

Jan’s career at Ithaca College was distinguished by the countless number of students and families who benefitted from his personal attention, kindness, and acumen in administering a complex system of federal, state, and institutional financial aid policies and procedures. Jan had a special fondness for the student athletes who came his way and “bled Bomber blue” for his footballers, baseballers, softballers, swimmers, and wrestlers. He maintained contact with many of them over the years, as well as with the chemistry majors, actors, musicians, and physical therapists whom he helped on their way to graduation and beyond.

In the early 1990’s, Jan shifted his career path from campus-based work to the business side of financial aid, joining Educaid and Wachovia Bank as a customer service representative and eventually northeast marketing manager. Here, Jan drew on his vast network of contacts among student aid professionals and his longtime involvement with the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association. Upon learning of Jan’s passing, NYSFAAA president Darrin Rooker issued a statement to the membership recalling Jan’s many contributions to the association, ending with his personal recollection of Jan …”as a kind and friendly person who almost always had a smile on his face and always wanted to be sure you had one too.”

Jan is survived by the love of his life, wife and partner Cindy Klotz; his son Jeff, stepson Bryan (Megan); his sister Kathy (Mark) and brothers Gary (Terri) and Jay (Mary); grandchildren Braelyn, Alexandra, Olivia, Morgan, and Mitchell, as well as many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

A celebration of Jan’s life will be held on Thursday, May 30, 2019 at the Ithaca Yacht Club

Memorial contributions in Jan’s name can be made to Earlham College, the Farm and Wilderness Foundation, Cope Environmental Center, Ithaca College Athletics, or any charity of your choice.