Obituary of Janet Wright Schrieber

Janet W. Schrieber (née Wright), 86, of Denver, Colorado died on 4 September 2023.

Born on 26 September 1936, in New Rochelle, NY, Janet was the fifth of five children.

Janet graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1958. Upon graduation, Janet spent a year in Germany at the Free University of Berlin where she continued her studies in historically oriented political science. In 1963, Janet moved to Madison, Wisconsin with her husband, David Schrieber. Janet and her family spent 2 years in Indonesia from 1970-72, where she learned Indonesian and played gamelan music with a local women’s group. Following this formative experience, Janet earned a Masters in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to becoming an active supporter of the international student community in Madison, Janet was qualified as a teacher of English as a Second Language and was passionate about teaching ESL both to Hmong refugees in Madison and to university students during return visits to Indonesia. Janet also translated the works of Indonesian authors as well as assisted in editing the PhD dissertations of Indonesian graduate students at UW-Madison. Janet enjoyed playing tennis, had myriad DYI projects and was also an avid reader who could rarely be found without a book or the New Yorker in her hands. 

Janet was predeceased by her husband, David Edwin Schrieber, and her siblings, Benjamin Wright and Priscilla Smythe. She is survived by her daughters Peggy Schrieber and K.E. Schrieber; her grandchildren Jeremy Schrieber, Condro Lukitosari, and Ndaru Kartikaningsih; and her sisters, Emily Metz and Marcia Wright.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the International Institute of Wisconsin (https://iiwisconsin.org), an organization supporting refugee communities in Wisconsin.