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Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root Honoring Janet Root

Honoring Janet Root Home Student Life Arts Honoring Janet Root

HONORING JANET G. ROOT H'16

Janet Root receives honorary diplomaJanet G. Root H'16 was a parent volunteer at Shorecrest beginning in 1978, and over time she developed the school’s cultural enrichment program. As part of her 40 year span of volunteerism, she started the Picture Lady and Gentleman program and a Music Parent program in 1983. Former Headmaster Mary Booker Wall asked Janet to Chair the Arts and Humanities department. Janet agreed and worked for years in this role without compensation. 

Janet was elected to the Shorecrest Board of Trustees in 1981, and was named a Lifetime Trustee in 2013, only the second person in the school’s history to hold this distinction. At the 2016 Commencement ceremony, she was Shorecrest’s first honorary alumna and received a diploma, a well-deserved honor for someone who had given so much to the school. Sadly, Janet passed away in June 2016.

The Shorecrest community mourns the loss of Janet Root, namesake to our modern theatre facility. She was a Champion for our school and a legend in our community. Janet will be missed but her spirit will live on at Shorecrest forever. She has left a legacy of excellence and commitment that will inspire future generations of Chargers. The Janet Root Theatre, Janet G. Root State of the Arts Endowment, Janet Root Volunteer of the Year Award and the Janet Root Circle for Visual and Performing Arts are all a part of her lasting legacy at Shorecrest.

Mrs. Root’s innumerable volunteer efforts were commemorated with the institution of the Janet Root Volunteer of the Year Award. The Shorecrest Community Association created the Award in 1984 to recognize the parent or parents who best model the spirit of volunteerism of Janet Root, an iconic member of the Shorecrest community.

Janet made contributions to Shorecrest that were so varied and valuable they are hard to calculate. As a result, this institution has spent the last few decades doing its best to recognize and thank Janet Root and her family for the ceaseless effort to guide, encourage, and shape Shorecrest in a positive way. Her influence on this place will be felt for many generations.” remarked Charles Reynolds '81, past President of the Shorecrest Alumni Association.


Remember Janet Root

by William Leavengood ‘78 

Painting of Janet RootJanet Root H'16 was a treasured part of the Shorecrest Community for over forty years. Although she was well-known as a “champion of the arts,” she was, in fact, a champion of all things good in humanity.

In 1995, I was thirty-five and my wife and I were expecting our first child. Although I had an impressive career as a playwright in New York and had been assured I would have a lucrative screenwriting career in Los Angeles, it had not materialized, and I needed a steady job and health insurance. My only professional level skills were as a playwright and screenwriter. I wrote two letters of inquiry about Theatre teaching jobs: one to my college alma mater, and one to my high school alma mater, Shorecrest Preparatory School.

My college never even acknowledged receiving my letter. Janet Root contacted me almost immediately, effusive about the idea of my coming back to Shore- crest to be a Guest Theatre and Play- writing teacher for a year. Just in case the baby came early, Janet made my official hire date July 1, to be sure we would have health coverage. That was Janet. I am now in my 22nd year of teaching at Shorecrest. One of the key reasons I came here, and then stayed, was Janet Root.

Janet crusaded endlessly not just for funding for our Arts and Humanities Department, but for recognition of the arts as a crucial and essential element of a young person’s education, an element which would enrich and shape both their lives and our culture.

“She loved the arts and wanted to make sure the students had every opportunity to experience them to their fullest potential,” wrote alumnus, Garrett Schulte ’13. “Janet inspired students to dream bigger. Acting was a hobby for me in high school; I had no reason to believe anything else for my future. She saw it differently though, as it always seemed like she was talking to me about acting like it was what was next for me. She believed in that side of me way before I did, and now it is something I am considering trying as a career.”

Janet brought the best professional touring theatre in the country to Shorecrest, so that our students from The Experiential School through the Upper School would be exposed to the power and magic of live theatre. However, her sphere of influence reached beyond the student body. “I never paid much attention to the arts until I was fortunate enough to meet Janet,” recalls Mary Robillard, a retired police detective who joined the Shorecrest community years ago along with her husband, former Upper School teacher, Bob Robillard. “Because of her passion for the arts, I have learned to appreciate many art forms and found that they can enrich my life. Janet made my world a colorful place to be.”

If there was ever anything her Arts & Humanities faculty needed for a classroom, a facility or a production, Janet made sure they got it. She might grumble or shake her head a bit at first, but then she would make sure it happened, even if she had to cover the overage herself.

In fact, I have never met anyone who was more generous with her time, knowledge and financial support. Every organization in Tampa Bay wanted her on their board, and she served on many beyond the Shorecrest Board of Trustees, including the Dali Museum, The Florida Holocaust Museum and All Children’s Hospital. The Janet Root Volunteer of the Year Award was created to honor her as the paragon of commitment to helping Shorecrest always and in every way that she could. Who in the world would work full time for years as the head of a high school arts department for no salary? Janet would.

But Janet’s generosity and kindness extended beyond the arts and her many organizations, to many, many individuals.

“Every day after school, my four sons came from their respective schools and waited for me in the Landy Hall lobby until I was ready to leave,” reminisced Head of Upper School, Tom Dillow. “Janet would come out and give them hugs. One day a few years ago, she asked them what their favorite candy was. The next day, she had loads of their favorite candies in her desk drawer, and the pilgrimage to Janet’s office began then. It lasted until the last day she was in her office. Her love and affection for my own children moved and touched me sincerely.”

Joanne Minke, a veteran Shorecrest kindergarten teacher, recalled, “When my daughter, Kim, died, Janet reached out to me with a generous donation to her infant son, Jaxon. I was very touched by her care and concern.”

I often called Janet “boss,” as a joke, because she was actually much more like my dear friend and surrogate mother. My daughters called her “Aunt Janet,” and Janet reveled in Alice and Charlotte’s triumphs all through their thirteen years at Shorecrest. Janet and I were like Felix and Oscar of “The Odd Couple.” My office and classroom is always a mess and I often dress like I forgot to look in the mirror before I came to work. Janet was always dressed elegantly, her office space was immaculate, her attention to detail was meticulous. I once, long ago, visited her home. Every room in her house looked like an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum that had been curated by an interior designer. I finally asked, “Janet? Where’s your ‘stuff?’”

However, despite these few differences, we were a great team, cut from the same cloth, both artistically and politically, and had many lively conversations exalting or ranting about what was going on in our country and in the arts.

Janet loved to take her Arts & Humanities Department to lunch twice each year. These events never felt like work obligations, but rather like joyous celebrations. Janet even took us all to lunch last May, despite her frailness and her pain.

Janet adored the school, the teachers and the students. But even more, she adored her husband, Allen; her children, Jonathan, Jennifer and Michael; and her grandchildren. She always looked forward to them all coming home for the holidays, which she usually hosted, or to meeting up together in the summer on the Jersey Shore. 

“One day in a board meeting, less than a year ago, as she was becoming more ill, I was sitting next to her,” recalled Tom Dillow, “and her phone, which she kept out all the time, buzzed. It was a loud buzz, which caused me to instinctively look that way, and I unintentionally read the short, sweet message from Allen: ‘When, sweet darling, can I pick you up?’ That was but one of countless examples that I witnessed of their sincere love for each other. They had a deep and abiding love, like honeymooners, but it was also a mature and wise love. It served as an example to me about trying to be a good husband (and father), as I’m sure it did to many others as well.”

Janet’s vibrancy and joyfulness left a lasting impression on everyone who knew her. Former Head of Middle School, Marsha Hirsch remembers, “After I left Shorecrest fifteen years ago, Janet and I stayed in touch on a regular basis...mostly Sunday phone calls. We both looked forward to them. We had a special closeness and would easily speak for an hour or more. Until the very end, Janet and I talked about her department and how proud she was of everyone. Janet taught me so much about doing things the right way. Whatever Janet did had that ‘Janet touch’ and it was perfect. I know life goes on... but there will always and only be one Janet Root.”

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