Janet Flaccus' Obituary
Janet Flaccus, age 70, of Fayetteville, died Tuesday, March 3, 2020. She was born December 31, 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of George Edward Flaccus Jr. and Helen Stulen Flaccus. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother Robert Flaccus.
She was a law professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville from 1984-2018.
She is survived by her husband of 43 years, Bruce Dixon; a sister Louise Flaccus Reese and her husband David E. Reese of Glenbrook, Nevada, and a brother George Edward Flaccus III of Belmont, North Carolina, and his daughter, Sydney Rose Flaccus of Wichita Falls, Texas. Janet is also survived by her nephew Rhett Reese and Rhett’s wife Chelsey Reese the their son, David Edward Reese, of Century City, California, her nephew Caleb Reese of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Janet’s niece Robyn Cardamone and Robyn’s husband Richard Cardamone of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and their sons, Aidan and Logan Cardamone.
Janet grew up in the Pittsburgh area and then followed in the steps of her aunt Caroline Flaccus and sister Louise and graduated from Wheaton College in Norton MA in 1971. She spent her junior year as a member of the first coed students to attend Dartmouth College. She earned her masters in history and then became a law student at the University of California at Davis, where she graduated first in her class in 1978. She spent five years in private, civil practice at Phebus, Tummelson, Bryan and Knox in Urbana IL. She earned her LL.M at the University of Illinois Law School in 1985.
In 1984 Janet became an assistant professor of law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She broke another gender barrier by becoming the first, female, full professor of law in 1994, 70 years after the establishment of the Law School in 1924. Janet taught “black-letter law”—contracts, sales and leasing, bankruptcy, negotiable paper, etc. and later in her career, domestic relations. She published in a number of law reviews and the practitioner oriented Law Notes which she edited for a number of years. She was recognized multiple times as Best in Continuing Legal Education by the Arkansas Bar Association. Her favorite part of being a law professor was being able to interact with students and help them shape their careers.
Janet enjoyed tennis, golf, 44 years of running with her husband on Sunday mornings, musical theater and symphony. But her passion in life was ornamental gardening. For the first year of the America-in-Bloom competition in Fayetteville, Janet’s gardens won first place. She also did the floral landscaping of the Richard B. Atkinson Memorial Courtyard. Her proof of the existence of God was that only a divine power could create something as beautiful as flowers in bloom.
A celebration of life will be scheduled at a later date.
Memorials may be made to The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, 2700 Horizon Drive, Suite 120, King of Prussia, PA 19406
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