Janice Rose Zemanek Cutler

was born in Chicago IL, to Ludwig and Mary Zemanek on May 3, 1942. Her family later moved to a dairy farm in Deerbrook, a small town in central Wisconsin. There she grew up surrounded by family, living with her parents, paternal grandparents her twin sister Janet, and younger siblings Kenny and Ellen. Janice and her siblings attended the one-room Little Chicago Grade School on County Road V. She excelled in all subjects, showing a particular aptitude in mathematics. She earned a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1969 for her dissertation, “On the Semisimplicity of Integral Representation Rings.” Janice served as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Louisiana State University from 1970 to 1976. It was at LSU that she met her husband of 52 years, William “Bill” Cutler. They were married in Antigo, WI, on August 12, 1973.

Janice applied her mathematical expertise to the insurance industry beginning a successful career in 1978 as an Actuarial Assistant for Wausau Insurance in Wausau WI. In 1985 she and Bill moved to Palatine, IL, where she worked at Zurich Insurance in Schaumburg through 1999 and then as an Actuarial Consultant for John Pierce from 1999 to 2008. In 1988 she attained the prestigious distinction of becoming a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS). Ultimately Janice returned to the classroom as an adjunct professor from 2005 to 2020 in the mathematics department at Harper Community College in Palatine IL. Janice was a founding member of the Harper College Adjunct Faculty Association (HCAFA) serving as secretary and/or treasurer of the union throughout her time at Harper. During graduate school Janice biked through Vermont with a close friend. For their honeymoon Bill and Janice camped around Lake Michigan. They visited the Grand Canyon on three separate trips in the 1990s; while their daughters felt they had seen enough after the first visit Janice and Bill were undeterred, simply bringing along other family members for the subsequent journeys. Janice and Bill traveled to England the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, Finland, Brussels, France, Germany, and Luxembourg to attend puzzle parties. Janice enjoyed a variety of crafting hobbies — she learned knitting from her grandmother sewing from her mother, and practiced macramé and needlepoint as well. She made grade school clothes and halloween costumes for her daughters and baby sweaters for the showers of every coworker, friend, and relative. She shared these skills with her daughters.

An avid reader Janice amassed a personal library of more than 3,000 books. Her favorite authors included Jane Austen Charlotte Brontë, P.D. James, Dorothy Sayers, and many other contemporary mystery novelists. She enjoyed the challenge of crossword puzzles and Sudoku and she spent many evenings watching PBS and BBC adaptations of classic novels and mysteries. Bill and Janice regularly visited the family farm and woods. They enjoyed playing bridge assembling jigsaw puzzles, and—most importantly—keeping up with their grandsons through video chats and visits to Sunnyvale, CA.

Janice passed away on February 27, 2026, in Palatine, IL. She is survived by her devoted husband Bill; her daughters, Barb Cutler (Derek Bruening) and Beth (Stefan) Lowe; and her cherished grandsons Felix Lowe (6) and Tristan Lowe (3). She is also survived by her twin sister Janet Dixon; her brother, Kenneth (Ann) Zemanek; and her sister Ellen (Robert) Christenson. A memorial service to honor Janice’s life and legacy will be held at the family farm in Deerbrook, WI, on Saturday, July 4th.