Jan Maereen Kilpack

 Jan Maereen Heilmann Kilpack

 3/23/1947 – 7/31/2025

Jan Maereen was born the eldest of three children to Willis Donald and Betty-Jo Sibrel Heilmann. She was born in and lived in Kansas until she was 3, then moved to Bingham Canyon, with most of her years in West Jordan, Utah. She was the valedictorian at Bingham High School, attended the University of Utah, graduated from Weber State University with an associates in nursing then, almost fifteen years later, received her bachelor of science in nursing from Westminster University. In both cases, she graduated Summa Cum Lauda with a 4.0 GPA.

Jan was a very bright and happy person. Her daughter-in-law Alison said, “Her eyes were so beautiful, big and soft and kind and gentle. You could see no other part of her face but her eyes, and you would know exactly what she was feeling.” She loved animals, especially horses, and loved telling stories about winning a pony in a contest that only she could ride, because it would not obey her brothers or anyone else. She loved music, playing piano with a high level of skill, and loved to sing along with music, if not dance. Her son Bill said, “She would go down in the basement to play piano and I would lie on the floor with my ear on the heat vent to listen. Sometimes, she would play for an hour or more. She played Flight of the Bumblebee a lot, but she always played, at least once, The Entertainer.” She loved sports, being raised by a semi-pro baseball player, who taught her and all the grandkids to bat left-handed, because “it gets you two steps closer to first base.” She enjoyed camping and the outdoors, starting from a childhood of fishing with her parents at Utah Lake and the Provo River and traveling to national parks. That passion only grew after marriage at the family cabin near Miller Flat Reservoir or camping on the mountaintop on Skyline Drive. She enjoyed river running, SCUBA diving, and downhill skiing, particularly at Alta Ski Resort. In high school, in addition to being valedictorian, she was yearbook editor. She was an avid wrestling fan and traveled the country to support her son and grandkids in Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. She was a well-known wrestling supporter from Illinois to California. At one big national tournament, the local news set up to televise her son’s championship match but, when the news segment aired, not one second of wrestling was included. Instead, they aired about 30 seconds of footage of Jan matside, showing her jumping around, yelling, covering her mouth, bending down only to jump up straight again, gritting her teeth and squeezing imaginary opponents with her headlock. She was also an amazing oil painter, exhibiting in shows and winning awards although, after selling one painting, she said selling them “took the fun out of it.” Her real love of painting was to give them as gifts to family and friends.

Jan met her future husband, Bill, while in high school, on a blind date. Her best friend set her up with her boyfriend’s best friend (who also happened to be his nephew). It turned out pretty well, with a fifty-nine year marriage and Jan’s best friend becoming family. Anyone who knew her for very long probably heard the story about them meeting on a blind date.

Jan excelled in nursing. She was a brilliant diagnostician and really should have been a doctor, except that women in her generation did not do that. She became a Registered Nurse in 1976. Her decision to go into medicine came after her daughter had serious complications from contracting chicken pox as a child. She later moved into occupational health and health-related regulation, monitoring and quality control for the Utah Health Department and Salt Lake County Health Department. Her hospital nursing included critical care, emergency room, pediatrics, orthopedic/medical-surgical, postpartum, labor and delivery, and psychiatry. She wrote the standard operating procedures for the Utah Department of Health Vaccines for Children Program, Court-Ordered Treatment, Isolation, and Quarantine Guidelines for Control of Tuberculosis for the Utah Department of Health Tuberculosis Control Program, employee health protocols for Shriners Hospital, occupational health protocols for Hercules Aerospace, and psychiatric nursing protocols for Pioneer Valley Hospital’s psychiatric unit. She also participated in the 1996 revision of the Utah Communicable Disease Act (SB 216).

Jan gave birth to two children, Shannon and Bill.  She loved them deeply and they were the highlights of her life. She made that clear to anyone who saw her look at them. Even when Bill was an adult, she took great pride in telling anyone who would listen, “He’s my baby!” 

She was preceded in death by her parents, Don and Betty-Jo; her in-laws, Don and Rosella; and daughter, Shannon. She will be deeply missed by her husband Bill; her son Bill and daughter-in-law Alison; her younger siblings, Elwin (Sherrie) Heilmann, Wayne (Jan) Heilmann, Kevin Kilpack, Debra (Torsten) Anderson, Jim (Diane) Kilpack, and Darrell Kilpack; ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, from 7 to 9 pm at the LDS Callie Building located at 7150 South Callie Drive (1520 W.), West Jordan, Utah.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Shriners Hospital for Children. https://tinyurl.com/2dknb77w Jan would love that.