Janet Parker Decker is shown coming up from the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library in 1997. Janet served as Curator of the Adirondack Room for about twenty years, chaired the books section of Come to the Fair, and served as SLFL Board President, among many other contributions. She was honored by the library in 2005 with a reception and a plaque, hung in the Adirondack Room, commemorating her outstanding leadership and dedication to the development and expansion of the Adirondack Room and her extensive contribution to the larger library community by serving on regional and state boards. (Photograph by Pat Wiley) Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 9, 2011 Born: October 19, 1921
Died: March 22, 2011
Married: Dr. Alfred M. Decker December 20, 1943 in Lowville
Children: Jane Decker Hopeman, Anne Gaughan, Margaret Decker, Dr. John W. Decker, Charles Decker
Janet Parker Decker was born in Lowville, New York, the daughter of Fay and Jessie (Blackmon) Parker. She was valedictorian of Lowville Academy in 1938, and attended the University of Rochester, graduating in 1942. From 1944 to 1945 she attended the George Warren Brown School of Social Work of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
She worked for a time as an agent for dependent children in Lewis County and later for the Crippled Children's Society and Children's Aid Society in St. Louis. She volunteered as a nurses' aide during World War II.
She served the North Country Girl Scout Council as finance chair, and as regional coordinator of the American Field Service. She earned a master's degree in Education at SUNY Plattsburgh, and then accepted a position as assistant professor of English at North Country Community College, later serving as chair of the Division of Developmental Studies. Traveling to China in 1982, she taught English at Nankai University in Tianjin.
She was named Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year, and in 2001 she was given the Harold K. Hochschild Award by the Adirondack Musuem. She served on local, regional and state library boards and received the Outstanding Service to Libraries award from the New York Library Association. She served as curator of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library for 15 years.
When Historic Saranac Lake was incorporated in 1980, Janet Decker was one of the founding Board members. She was also a past member of the Reviewers Club.
