Janice Catherine Scharver was born in Massillon, Ohio on September 20, 1930, and was the daughter of the late Millard and Irene (Riese) Scharver. She thought she was born because her sister, Bonita, hounded her parents to have another child. They did and Janice thought Bon was the greatest. In the War years, they learned all the songs and practiced them. Janice lived near the Rezzy, and became an avid ice skater. Like most girls at the time, she loved to dance and perform. Then she graduated from Washington High and went to work in her uncle’s dairy. She worked in the office and became proficient in accounting with courses at Walsh College.

She met and dated Ronald C. Meyer and they were married in 1957.

Janice worked at E.W. Bliss Co. from 1965 to 1970 where she was the manager of corporate accounting. She set the standards for how an efficient office operates. Bliss was bought by Gulf & Western and closed in 1970.

Bliss president, Carl Anderson, retired and accepted the position of running the Canton Chamber of Commerce. He hired Janice as his administrative assistant and 25 years later she was still providing dedicated leadership as Executive Director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival.

Although it was not in her original job description in 1970, Janice was thrust almost immediately into the task of planning and staging Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival events and, as the years passed, it became her major responsibility at the Chamber. She presided over a staff at the Chamber of six full-time and two part-time employees and oversaw the efforts of 25 Chamber festival committees. These committees were comprised of more than 2,300 volunteers who worked year round to assure the success of the Festival. Janice was personally involved in every aspect of the planning by this corps of volunteers and guided the efforts of the staff who implemented the plans.

The Festival included a Queen Pageant, Balloon Classic Invitational, Pasta Dinner, 10K and 2 mile Race, Kickoff Sunday Parade, Band Concert and Fireworks Display, Ribs Burn-off and Sky Concert, Mayor’s Breakfast, Fashion Show Luncheon, Enshrinees Civic Dinner, Grand Parade, Drum Corps Competition, and Photo Contest.

The first Mayor’s Breakfast was attended by 225 people and the crowd later grew to 3,600; the Fashion Show Luncheon has grown from 300 attendees to more than 3,800; the Enshrinees Civic Dinner grew from 1,100 to 3,800 guests; and the Grand Parade expanded from 89 units and a crowd of 40,000 people, to 125 units and more than 100,000 spectators.

The International Festivals Assn was attracted by the success of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival and recruited Janice to participate in their organization which represents more than 1,000 festivals across the US and internationally. Janice served as parade judge for the IFA at the Indy 500, the Kentucky Derby, the Aloha Parade and numerous others.

Janice and her late husband Ron enjoyed traveling and gardening. They cleared their backyard and planted trees, shrubs and flowers and created their very own park.

In addition to her parents, her husband Ron passed in 2014 and her sister, Bonita Franz passed in 2006.

In 2015, she received a call from Bill Hain, a coworker at Bliss. He called to offer his condolences on her loss of Ron. She hadn’t seen or talked to him in 45 years.

Janice and Bill were married in 2016 and he survives her.

In keeping with her wishes, there will be no services.

To sign the online guestbook, go to www.heitger.com