Janá Lee Kuest (K7NOE-SK), 38, born on August 10, 1973 and passed away on November 11, 2011 at 1531 hours as a result of injuries sustained in head-on car crash on Hwy 22 near Stayton, Oregon. Her 10-year old son, Garrett, and his 9-year old friend survived the crash. She leaves behind her husband of almost 15 1/2 years, Fred R. Kuest (K7FRK), and her son, Garrett Kuest (K7GIK). Internment was held at Willamette National Cemetery on November 18, 2011. A Memorial Service was held on November 19, 2011.
Janá graduated from Lewis-Clark State College in 1997 with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with a Special Education Endorsement. While at LCSC, Janá met and then married Fred Robert Kuest (Class of 1998) on May 25, 1996.
Janá taught in the Hillsboro School District since 1999 and was most recently a teacher at Brookwood Elementary. What made her a great teacher was her compassion and understanding for each student. As her principal, Molly Siebert, said, “She had a real gift for connecting with students others saw as difficult.” That single sentence sums up Janá as a teacher. She cared not only about the academic success of her students, but their success in life as well.
Janá ran her life and classroom by many rules. Recently, she did a project with her students based on the character Leroy Jethro Gibbs from the TV show NCIS. Gibbs’ Rules outline the code he lives his life by. Janá came up her own rules and then had her class brain storm their own rules. Because she needed to have the students write a five paragraph essay and was tired of hearing, “I don’t know what to write about,” Janá decided to have the students pick their top three rules and write about why they are important to them. When she explained the assignment to the parents at student conferences, every parent loved it. It was her belief that her students would succeed in school and life by following all of her rules, especially her top three rules.
#1: You success is greatly influenced by your attitude.
#2: Rumors are like feathers in a pillow. Once they are scattered, it is impossible to get them all back.
#3: Trust is a strong bond that is easily broken.
Janá was also known to have fun in the classroom and was known to kill words that were overused in her classroom. Her former students still remember the day in reading group when Janá killed the word fun. Fred remembers walking into her classroom one day and seeing a large paper tombstone with the word “fun” on it and indicating the date the word died. Little did her students know Janá was about to kill the word “like” this year.
Janá was a big kid at heart. She loved children, and they loved her back. She worked in the Nursery at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church and also volunteered for several years as a leader with Garrett’s Cub Scout pack. Many people and students have said something negative about themselves in front of Janá and were met with her standard reply, “Five positives about yourself, please.” She would not drop the issue or let people off of the hook until she got them to say five positive things about themselves. Her integrity and unique ability to bring out the best in a person will be missed by many, especially her students.
