Community activist and church elder Janet Golovner dies at 79

Janet Golovner, the former executive director of the Kingsbridge-Riverdale Van Cortlandt Development Corporation (KRVC), passed away on July 29. She was 79. 

A founding member of KRVC, Ms. Golovner retired in the spring of 2007 after 25 years with the organization. 

“It is difficult, if only because of limited space, to describe the strength, generosity, leadership and tireless commitment to [KRVC] and our community that Janet has demonstrated over and over again,” KRVC’s current Board of Directors secretary Petr Stand wrote in the organization’s 25th Anniversary Celebration program. 

A Midwestern girl, Ms. Golovner, born Janet Macy, grew up in Litchfield, Illinois. Raised  in a household with Quaker and Baptist roots, her education was founded on the ideal of public service.

She began her career as a schoolteacher after earning a Master’s degree in Library Science from MacMurray College. 

In 1963, she met her husband Leon Golovner at a library convention in Chicago. The two moved to New York City, where she continued her Master’s studies at Columbia University and got a job at a library in Coney Island, Brooklyn. 

The couple had two sons, Robert and David. As they grew up, Ms. Golovner immersed herself in community outreach, serving as president of the Marble Hill Nursery School, as an officer of the City and State League of Women Voters and as the director of community relations for Frances Schervier Nursing Home in Riverdale. 

 Her work with KRVC began in 1980, when she and a group of community activist saw the need for an organization supporting development in Riverdale and Kingsbridge. 

Ms. Golovner became the group’s first president, stepping down in 1985. She took up the executive director position in 1990. 

Though Ms. Golovner’s husband Leon died from cancer in 1984 and her son Robert was killed in an accident in 1980s, she continued her community work amidst these challenges. 

She earned praise and criticism for her activism, with The Riverdale Review relentlessly — and many believed unfairly — targeting her in cartoons, editorials and stories and a Bronx Democratic Leader calling her “that blonde lady who builds affordable housing.” 

She is remembered as a supportive mother and a Church elder and member of the Session at the Riverdale Presbyterian Church.  

A funeral service for Ms. Golovner was held at the Church on Aug. 2. 

She is survived by her son David, and two grandchildren, Gemma Rose Golovner and Theodore Joseph Golovner.