Janice Karen DeGowin

JANICE KAREN (PIPER) DEGOWIN Iowa City Janice Karen (Piper) DeGowin, 80, died in her sleep Monday, March 13, 2017. She was in hospice care at Oaknoll Retirement Residence after coping with cancer for a year. Karen Piper was born to Mark M. Piper, MD, and Janice Marie (Nichols) Piper in Rochester, Ind., on Oct. 12, 1936, during the Great Depression. Her parents divorced when she was 4 years old, and Karen lived with her Grandmother Nichols in Clear Lake for two years. Then Karen's mother placed her in foster care from age 6 to 10 with good friends Charles and Helen Price of Mason City, who loved her like a daughter. Karen's mother, Jan, completed her training in Dubuque, accepted the position as director of social welfare for Winneshiek County, and brought Karen, now 10 years old, to live with her in an apartment above the Lyric Movie Theater in Decorah. Jan married Ernest A. Sivesind, the projectionist at the movie theater, and they moved into the finished basement apartment of the house, to be completed later when funds became available. This home is where Karen grew up in Decorah and where she was living when she met her fiance. Ernie, with Jan's support, developed the J&E Cable System, the second television cable system in the state of Iowa, enabling them to complete in 1963 the second story of their beautiful home at 901 Walnut St. Karen attended the University of Iowa for two years before accepting a scholarship from Delta Gamma, her sorority, to receive training and certification as an orthoptist in the Department of Ophthalmology, assisting physicians to correct the strabismus of "cross-eyed" children. During the summer of 1956, Karen's sorority sister, Mary Ann Clark, who was dating Richard DeGowin's University High School classmate, the Rev. Stephen Hulme, arranged for Karen and Dick to meet on a blind date. In Chicago on March 15, 1957, Karen and Dick announced their engagement to marry. They visited Jan and Ernie in Decorah and were driving to Iowa City to spend Sunday afternoon with Dick's parents on March 17, 1957, St. Patrick's Day. Shortly after noon, they were nearly killed when a drunk (0.300 blood alcohol) driver crossed the center line and crashed into and totaled their car in front of the Catholic church in Ossian. Instead of marrying in Bond Chapel at the University of Chicago in September, they married in front of the fireplace of Dick's parents' home in Iowa City before a small gathering of friends and family members on June 30, 1957, a modest affair resulting in a union of almost 60 years. After a week's honeymoon at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Karen returned to finish her training in Iowa City, and Dick began his clerkship as a junior medical student at University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. After summer's separation, Karen and Dick moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a racially integrated Chicago Dwelling Association building across the Midway Plaisance from University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. Karen's salary as an orthoptist, from working in the eye clinic there, paid rent and bought groceries when Dick's intern stipend was $150 per month. Requiring a second bedroom after their first son, Bob's arrival on Nov. 5, 1962, the family moved to an apartment in Brainerd in South Chicago. Shortly thereafter, Dick was commissioned captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and they moved again. Following Dick's discharge from two years' active duty in the Army, the family bought their first house at 10331 S. Leavitt, in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Chicago, when Dick served as assistant professor of internal medicine, hematology, at the University of Chicago. After 3 1/2 years, the family moved to Iowa City, when Dick accepted a position on Dec. 1, 1968, as associate professor of medicine, hematology and radiation research. In addition to caring for her family, Bill was born April 3, 1970. Karen enjoyed good times with friends, playing tennis, playing bridge, attending PEO, and working with Delta Gamma Alumnae at vision screenings of elementary schoolchildren. She delighted in reuniting with brother Mark Piper, whom she first met as a toddler, the child of her father and his third wife. Since then Mark and his wife, Cheryl, have become cherished family members. Karen started volunteering on Jan. 1, 1973, several months after the inauguration of the Volunteer Services program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, compiling 6,020 on-site hours during the next 43 years. She loved people, answering the volunteer telephone, and enticed little patients to acquire sock monkeys knitted by other volunteers. With Bill and Dick, she enjoyed houseboating with friends in the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge, camping on sandbars and viewing the Mississippi River Valley from her cottage on a bluff. Her easy smile and upbeat spirit made many friends in Northeast Iowa, enduring for 45 years until her death. Karen's family thanks internist, Dr. Rebecca Davis; gynecologic oncologist, Dr. David P. Bender and his staff; neurologist, Dr. Joel Geerling; immunologist, Dr. Zuhair Ballas; and the nurses at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for providing excellent personal care. After her discharge to Oaknoll's Short Stay Unit, Karen received outstanding care from nurses Mitchell, Scott, Mary Jo and Madrene, and nursing assistants Jessica and Ash Lynn, and others, including physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists. Later, she greatly benefitted from care by the nurses and volunteers of Iowa City Hospice, working with the Oaknoll Staff to ensure her comfort. At Karen's request, there will be no funeral, but there will be a service celebrating her life at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 29, in the Spring Street Community Room of Oaknoll Retirement Residence in Iowa City. In lieu of flowers, those who wish to contribute to Karen's memory may send donations to the University of Iowa Volunteer Services, in care of the University of Iowa Foundation. To share a thought, memory or condolence with her family, please go to the funeral home website at www.gayandciha.com. Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service is caring for her family and arrangements.