Janice Buckley Walsh

Janice Buckley Walsh of Upper Arlington joined her beloved husband Leo, at last and for eternity, on July 13, 2025. 

Jan and Leo raised six children: Ann (Mike) Konzen of St. Louis, MO; Patrick Walsh of Edina, MN; Peter (Janice) Walsh of Upper Arlington, OH; Molly Walsh Bateman of Upper Arlington, OH; Michael (Amy) Walsh of Chicago, IL; Regan (Nick Lanctot) Walsh of Columbus, OH; and a raft of grandchildren: Katy, Ben, Seamus, Liam, Evan, Jacob, Lily, Gabe, Aidan, Nathan, Regan, Ainsley, Jameson, Hadley, Dorothy and Maeve. With honorable mention to John Lang of Darien, CT, whom she and Leo considered the seventh Walsh. 

At the birth of every one of these grandchildren, Jan traveled to meet them, change diapers, manage older siblings, dispense bottle feedings, and help the new parents recover from their exhaustion. 

Jan was born to Dorothy and Sheridan Buckley on September 17, 1935 in St. Paul Minnesota. Sister and best friend to Ginny (Earl, deceased) Orth of Edina, MN, and brothers Sheridan (Alyce) Buckley of Naples, FL, and Gene (Carole) Buckley (deceased). Many nieces and nephews remember Aunt Jan fondly. She was preceded in death by her newborn daughter, Mary Dorothy. 

Jan attended Visitation School in Saint Paul and graduated with honors from Saint Catherine College. She studied in Strasbourg, France as a Fulbright Scholar, and lived in Taipei and Detroit before making her home in Upper Arlington for 58 years.

She traveled with Leo to conventions and meetings every year, always sure to look up friends from Visitation and Saint Kate’s wherever they went. She and Leo participated in the Cursillo and the Charismatic Renewal movements of the Catholic church. She took pride in the diversity of conversation in her couples’ book club, and she cherished her Marriage Encounter group for continuing to include her long after Leo’s passing. 

Jan was a beautiful writer, penning a regular column for the Saint Andrew church bulletin and poignant Christmas letters that recipients looked forward to as much as the holiday itself. 

She was a generous contributor to and frequent lector at Saint Andrew. For seven years she ran the junior high religious education program there. She served as a eucharistic minister at the church and at assisted living homes around Columbus. 

She helped found and build Columbus Temperature Control, where she worked until she was 83. She joined the business to help save it during a dire period, and it later saved her: working at CTC for 20 years after Leo’s passing kept her close to his spirit, and the life and business they built together. 

At her kitchen table on Middlesex Road Jan hosted hundreds of people over the years: school friends, neighbors, little brothers, visiting priests, and nuns from Africa. Regular dinners with clergy, godparents, extended family. She served piping hot food and warm conversation. No one left 2152 hungry in stomach or in spirit. 

Jan would be touched if you would donate to Catholic Social Services in her name. Or just invite someone to your kitchen table for a meal, and raise a toast in her memory.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10:30 a.m. Friday July 18th at St. Andrew Church at Reed & McCoy Roads where friends may call 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Burial to follow at St. Joseph Cemetery.