KURTZ, JANE GILMORE

Jane Gilmore Kurtz, age 96, died on March 26, 2023.
Jane was born in Philadelphia and was a long-time resident of Cape May Point. She grew up in Roxborough PA, where she managed to break her arm twice in the very same spot while roller skating down the same steep Manayunk street. She was a graduate of the then-Drexel Institute of Technology and worked as an assistant buyer for Strawbridge and Clothier in Philadelphia.
Jane met Bob Kurtz in Cape May Point as a teenager during the war and they married in 1950. Sadly, Bob died unexpectedly in 1981.
The Kurtz family joined the Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May in 1961. Jane became an avid crew member, frostbiting on the Schuylkill, winning the ‘Fastest Mother’ award, and cruising on the family’s Cal 34, “Yogi.” She assisted on the race committee boat, where she was responsible for the firing of a small cannon – the oft-cited reason for her later-in-life hearing loss. She did all this despite not knowing how to swim.
Jane was a lifelong volunteer for many different organizations, but she found her passion with Cape May Bird Observatory. Through her natural wanderlust and her love of birding, she visited every continent except Australia, usually with binoculars in hand. Among her favorite experiences were riding atop a camel at the Great Pyramid of Giza, seeing the Terra Cotta Army in Xi’An, China, riding on a Zodiac through ice floes to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and beholding the Blue-Footed Boobies in the Galápagos Islands. Yet as much as she enjoyed her world travels, she was happiest in the Point.
She had a fine, sharp mind and never lost her sense of curiosity and desire for learning. She may have been the only 96 year old Instagrammer! Some of Jane’s favorite expressions included “Getting old isn’t for the weak,” “Fan- TAS-tic!!,” and “I can’t complain,” which usually preceded a complaint. Those things she gave her attention to—from travel, to birding, to the machinations of the PGA (and her beloved Rory McIlroy)—she did so voraciously. And to the people she loved, she devoted herself. Jane was not easily impressed, but like The Godfather, if you were in, you were in.
Jane is survived by her daughters Kathleen Kurtz and Leslie Kurtz Fog, son-in-law Jens Fog, grandchildren Henning Fog, Leidy Cook Lemoine (Nicholas) and Anker Fog (Carly), great-granddaughter Anneli Jane Fog and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband Robert G. Kurtz, her sisters Adelaide, Dorothy, Mildred, and Ann, and her beloved brother Jimmy, as well as her grandson Robert Kurtz Cook.
A celebration in her memory will be held at a date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested in Jane’s memory to: Cape May Bird Observatory – Northwood Center, c/o New Jersey Audubon Headquarters, 9 Hardscrabble Road, Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924 or St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church, PO Box 261, Cape May Point, NJ 08212
“Look up to the sky. You’ll never find rainbows if you’re looking down.” –
Charlie Chaplin