Jan Claire Wellhouser, 75, of Brownsville, Oregon passed away peacefully at home Wednesday.She was born on in Malvern, Iowa to Lloyd and Isabelle Mulholland.

The youngest of three siblings, her family moved to Sweet Home, Oregon in 1943. Jan grew up camping all over Oregon with her family and developed a lifelong love for the forest.

She graduated from Sweet home high school in 1957 and went off to college where she earned her teaching degree and a double master’s degree in physical education. During her college years, her love for the outdoors grew and she summited all the major mountains in the Cascade Range.

Jan taught school in Edmonton, Canada and Albany, Oregon where she met and married Fred Wellhouser on December 9, 1972 in Spokane Washington. They moved to Brownsville and built their first house out on the Gap Road to start and raise their family. Jan and Fred had two boys, Craig and Jeff, who later gave them four grandchildren.

Jan worked for the Central Linn School District teaching mostly sixth grade from 1976 to 1994 before retiring. During the summer months, when school was out, she ran trail clearing crews for the U.S. Forest Service Sweet Home Ranger District. Jan also joined the wildfire crews and was dispatched to Eastern Oregon to fight wild fires.

Continuing with her love for the forest; after retiring from teaching school, she started South Santiam Services as a concessionaire managing five campgrounds on the South Santiam River for the USFS. Jan took a lot of pride cleaning the campgrounds and making sure everyone was a “Happy Camper.” She retired from the campgrounds in 1996 to take a cross country trip with her husband Fred and visited some 30 states. They drove from Brownsville to the East Coast and back, visiting friends and relatives along the way. Jan loved traveling and spending time with her grandkids, acting more like a kid than a grandma. She will be greatly missed by those whose lives she touched; but we will always smile when we think of all the crazy and silly things she used to do to make us laugh and learn.

Jan is survived by: her husband, Fred Wellhouser, of Brownsville; brother Walter and his wife, Wanda, Mullholland of Sweet Home; sons and daughters-in-law Craig and Carrie Wellhouser of Tualatin and Jeff and Krystal Wellhouser of Brownsville; and four adored grandchildren and multiple nieces and nephews.

Viewing will be from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m, Thursday, August 6, 2015 at Sweet Home Funeral Chapel. The funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m., Friday, August 7, 2015 at Brownsville Assembly of God Church with burial at Brownsville Pioneer Cemetery. Following the services, there will be a celebration of life at the Brownsville Pioneer Park at around 3:00.

Sweet Home Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements.