Jean Ann Harsha

Jean Ann Harsha died on May 2, 2013, surrounded by family at her home in Fallbrook, from the complications of multiple myeloma, which was first diagnosed some three years earlier.

Jean was born Feb. 8, 1943, in Hoboken, N.J., to Bruce and Regina (Ryan) Quinn. She grew up in The Bronx and North Bellmore, N.Y., and graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a B.S. in Biology. It was in the cafeteria at Stony Brook that Jean met Tom Harsha, who became her husband of 47 years. They were married in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1965, and soon moved to Tennessee, where she earned an M.S. in Biology from Middle Tennessee State University.

While they lived in Tennessee, their sons Peter and Evan were born. In 1974, the family moved to the San Fernando Valley; moving to California had been Jean’s goal since watching the Walt Disney TV show as a child during cold and dismal New York winters. Jean was a full-time mother until both boys were in school, when she began studies at California State University, Northridge, to obtain a medical technologist license.

In 1979, she began work at the Veterans’ Administration hospital in Sepulveda, Calif. Over the next 20 years she held a variety of positions, eventually becoming Chief Medical Technologist. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, she played a large role in the design and construction of a new medical laboratory for the rebuilt hospital. In 1997, with the children grown, she and Tom moved to Seal Beach, and Jean finished her VA career at the hospital in Long Beach.

Following her retirement in 1999, Jean enjoyed traveling extensively and participating in off-road Jeep Jamborees. After Tom retired in 2004, they moved to a new home in Fallbrook, Calif., where she was an active member of the Fallbrook Camera Club and a volunteer at Fallbrook Hospital.

Jean is survived by her husband; two children, Peter (Jill) and Evan (Joyce), and three grandchildren, Douglas, Theodore, and Gordon, as well as a sister, Carol Gandarillas, and two brothers, Bruce and Thomas Quinn. She also leaves behind a large number of friends and acquaintances who will remember her and her kindnesses for a long time to come.

Visitation will take place in Fallbrook at Berry-Bell & Hall Mortuary from 4 to 8 p.m. on May 9. A funeral mass for Jean will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, May 10, in the chapel of the Mission San Luis Rey parish church in Oceanside, Calif., and interment will follow at the Mission cemetery. The family suggests that those wishing to may contribute in her name to the International Myeloma Foundation.