Former Wheaton resident remembered as 'caring' volunteer, mother

You couldn't miss Jane Wambach at Marquette University's Christmas formal.

The straight-A student was named queen of the school's Holly Ball that evening in the early 1950s and caught the eye of a classmate.

"We struck up a conversation that eventually led to going out together quite faithfully," Jim Strenski said.

That encounter would lead to marriage that lasted quite faithfully: 64 years as the couple raised five children and championed social justice causes in Wheaton and later in Tampa, Florida.

"She always had an outpouring of love for everybody and especially for her family," Jim Strenski said.

He returned to their alma mater Monday for a memorial service to honor his wife, who died last month. Jane Strenski, who suffered from dementia, was 88. Her body was donated to science.

"That's typical of Jane. She always gave herself away, and even in death she gave herself away," her husband said.

A native of Milwaukee, Jane earned a degree in medical technology in 1952 from Marquette, one of several Jesuit schools the couple supported with their philanthropy and volunteer work.

Her daughter, Sue Splain, has been flipping through her mother's college scrapbook, meticulously kept with report cards and old photos. At the dance, she wore her hair in the style of the day: shoulder-length, parted on the side and curled at the ends.

"She carried herself beautifully," Splain said. "She was very regal, but she wasn't standoffish. She was very approachable and just a very caring and loving person."

Jim Strenski proposed on their first date in Milwaukee.

"I said to her at one point, 'Jane, if you marry me, you'll see the world,'" he recalled.

He kept his promise as the couple enjoyed the south of France and Italy during travels with WorldCom Group. As the founder of Public Communications Inc., Jim Strenski helped start the network of public relations firms.

Jim was a fair housing advocate who helped persuade the powers-that-be in Wheaton to change zoning laws to permit multifamily housing. He also offered pro bono public relations consulting to the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters as they developed their campus in what is today the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital and Marian Park, one of the oldest affordable housing complexes in DuPage County.

"I had been involved with that group of sisters for maybe 10 years and helped them, I hope, through a number of things they wanted to do with their land," Jim Strenski said.

Jane was an active member of their parish, St. Mark, and volunteered at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

"Her identity was helping others who needed help, her kids and her grandkids and really anybody else," said her son, Jim Strenski. "We would have neighbors and friends that would stop in sometimes unannounced and they could always have dinner."

The family moved to Florida in the early 1980s, and Jane began lending her talents as a seamstress - she was known for her elaborate Christmas stockings - to a fundraising craft bazaar hosted by the mother's club at the Jesuit High School in Tampa.

"She paid for all the materials herself and donated them to the school, so it was pure profit for them," Splain said.

Jane became president of the mother's club and the first woman to serve on the board of trustees for the all-male school.

She also was a nurturing "Nana" to Splain's three kids when the single mom moved to Tampa. The Strenskis made sure to attend their grandkids' dance recitals, baseball games, school functions and graduations.

As her health deteriorated, the grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of five was frustrated she couldn't make the trip to Wisconsin for the wedding of her grandson and Splain's son. He got married the day before her memorial service.

"She got her way. She wasn't there in body, but she was there in spirit," Splain said. "I knew she was looking down on my son and all of us, all of her children, all of her grandchildren. We were all there, and I knew she was looking down at all of us smiling very proudly."

Memorial donations may be made to the Jim & Jane Strenski Scholarship Endowment Fund for financially challenged students at Marquette University.