Janet L. (Schlosser) Wise

Janet Lynn Schlosser Wise passed from this life and into the arms of Jesus on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Her husband Mark was at her side. 

Jan was born in the heart of spring, on the 30th of May, 1956, to Donald and Virginia “Ginny” Schlosser. From the moment she could make a sound, she was singing. As a toddler, she waltzed around her Reynoldsburg ranch home on her tiptoes, singing her heart out, and didn’t really stop until cancer took her voice away in the fall of 2025. According to her mother Ginny, Jan sang along with Julie Andrews as a child “with perfect pitch”, and her school teachers reported that Jan was prone to bursting out in song unexpectedly during class (but was otherwise well-behaved).  

She was lively, distractable, sunny, and occasionally a source of mild torment to her older brothers Rick and Walter. She sometimes jumped out of closets to frighten them, or launched cold water into their showers. But notwithstanding these acts of sibling mischief, Jan was kind-hearted, noticing children on the fringes with compassion. She made room for classmates rejected and ignored by others, sitting next to them on the bus or at lunch when others kept their distance.

Jan had a whole-hearted love of Jesus from as early as any can remember, and it spilled out of her through music. She took piano lessons in 2nd grade and joined the school band in 5th grade; later she played clarinet, saxophone, and guitar. But her voice was the instrument that seemed to most directly channel her love of Jesus. She felt nervous before singing her first gospel solo, but afterwards described the sensation of God singing right through her — of being a conduit of his joy and his beauty in a way that made the “performance” hard to remember. Music was an act of surrender, of losing herself in the beauty of Jesus.

She graduated from Reynoldsburg High School in 1974 and attended Mt. Vernon Nazarene College, where she was chosen for Lost and Found, the touring national singing group of the Nazarene Church. More importantly, she bumped into a young student named Mark Wise. As part of a freshman initiation event, she was required to ask someone on a faux date to get a signature; Mark offered his signature on the condition that they went on a real date. She agreed, and though the date didn’t actually materialize, all turned out well anyway; a growing friendship blossomed into a marriage on January 21 of 1977. The marriage brought three beautiful children: Mindy in 1980, Jeff in 1983, and Erin in 1986. As her children grew, Jan was busy attending basketball games, soccer games, marching band competitions, plays, concerts, tournaments — she was there for it all, or nearly all, somehow. 

Jan was a church worship director from the mid-1980s to 1998. She oversaw countless music programs, launched an adult choir, and was generally so involved that on one occasion, when Jan visited a family in the congregation, a young boy answered the door and announced, “Daddy, church is here.” 

Jan was unusual for someone of her caliber musically. She held high standards, yet was also deeply accepting of people. Even for those without musical gifts, she found roles that matched their talents — from drama to cooking meals, she found a place for people. Jan knew worship was for everyone. And she knew it wasn’t about her.

Jan inhabited the gospel in action and shared it in words. She began leading music at an adult daycare called the Life Center in the early 1990s, and continued for nearly three decades. She led worship and physical exercises, and brought in her students for music recitals. She knew everyone by name, and would tell them often who Jesus was and why he came. 

When she led water aerobics and fitness classes at a recreation center in Whitehall, they became places of personal relationships and warmth. In fact, everywhere Jan went, she seemed to spark little communities infused with spiritual conversations, connection, and joy. 

In 1993, through a series of mini miracles, Mark and Jan moved into a 19th century farmhouse home on Epworth Drive. Jan adored the four-acre setting; she loved seeing animal footprints in the snow from her 2nd-story window or watching deer approach the backyard orchard in hunt of apples. She viewed each moment of natural beauty — a pink sky, a blooming  flower, an unexpected Eagle sighting — as personal gifts from Jesus to her. 

The home on Epworth Drive was filled with music, much of it from piano or voice lessons. The scales and melodies emanating at all hours from the music room may have varied in quality, but they were happy sounds nonetheless — proof of someone’s journey into the joy of music. And in those music lessons, which numbered in the thousands, Jan made space to check on the souls of her students.

Mark and Jan viewed their house as a gift and opened their doors often. They hosted band parties, bible studies, halloween parties, homecoming dinners, and more. In 2000, Jan went back to school at Capital University and received a dual degree in Music and Accounting. Jan didn’t consider herself academically capable (not true) nor adept at long periods of focus (true), yet earned a 4.0 anyway. 

Though music was Jan’s primary language for understanding God, she was a voracious reader of books about God. Her home is filled with books on spirituality in the Way of Jesus, many of them full of notes and underlined passages. She kept learning what it meant to be an apprentice of Jesus, up until the very end of her life. 

As cancer and treatments took their toll on her body, she had an experience that was utterly foreign to her: a sense of numbness, a struggle to experience the nearness of Jesus. And yet, even then, she clung to him. Her face brightened when she was reminded of his presence and promises, and the reality of who she was to become. She began to look forward to seeing Jesus. When her body became unrecognizable to her, she began to deeply anticipate her new body.  She smiled at the hope of regaining her singing voice.

Jan had always been active, always been a servant of others. But in the last few days, the call on her was to simply rest in her status as the cherished daughter, even with nothing to give. She accepted that call with a smile and sense of relief. Mark was at her side during her entire journey with cancer, including her final breaths in this world.  And in that awful, holy moment, Mark’s last words were, “Wrap your arms around Jesus, Jan.” 

Jan is loved and deeply missed by her husband of 49 years, Mark Wise; by her mother, Virginia Schlosser; by her children Mindy Nielsen, Jeff Wise, and Erin McCallum; by her grandchildren Micah McCallum, Miria McCallum, Jack Nielsen, Jonelle Nielsen, Edmund Nielsen, and Eden Virginia Nielsen; and by her brother, Rick Schlosser. She is preceded in death by her grandmother, Goldie Bozman; her father, Donald “Bud” Schlosser; and her brother, Walter Schlosser.

A Celebration of Life service for Janet will be held on Saturday, February 14, 2026 at Reynoldsburg Community Church, 1636 Graham Rd. Reynoldsburg, OH at 1:00pm with Pastor Elaine Sturtz and Pastor Clark Hess officiating. Private interment held at Glen Rest Memorial Estates.  

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