Jane Comstock, art historian, lecturer and researcher, died Sept. 7 in a Westminster care facility. Comstock, who died from the effects of a brain disorder, was 56.
A service is planned Oct. 4 at 1:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver.
Comstock, whose last job was as research curator with the Vance Kirkland Museum, had taught classes at the University of Colorado at Denver, been the slide librarian there and worked to preserve outdoor art.
She hoped to finish the dissertation for her doctorate at the University of Kansas but illness prevented her from attaining the degree.
Comstock was a popular teacher, said a former colleague, Jerry Johnson, retired CU art professor. She “was dedicated to the students” and the students liked her, he said. “There was almost always a student in her office.”
Comstock took students on several overseas trips to see historic art.
Karen Ashley, a student on one of the trips, said Comstock “was knowledgeable, witty and fun and just rolled with things. She was a really good teacher – not like so many teachers who are arrogant and full of themselves. She never made a student feel intimidated.”
Among her many positions, Comstock had been curatorial intern at the University of Kansas, was gallery director at the YWCA of Denver (a volunteer job), gave lectures, trained docents at museums, taught classes at Emily Griffith School, gave guided tours of the state Capitol and was on the gallery advisory committee at the Arvada Center. She also was coordinator of Save Outdoor Sculpture in Denver and statewide, gave lecturers at various schools and centers and wrote many papers on art.
One of her jobs was researching old Colorado photos, mostly in mining towns, for the Denver Public Library. She often went to the towns to identify the photos and when and where they were taken, said Linda Running Bentley, catalog librarian at DPL.
Comstock had the “widest circle of friends,” said a longtime friend, Joanne Mendes of Centennial.
Her wide range of interests stretched from movies and theater to gardening and dancing. Her sister, Peggy Durrett of Highland Village, Texas, said Comstock loved finding “original pieces of art” at thrift stores.
Comstock was born Aug. 21, 1950, in Hawthorne, Calif. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Whittier College in California and her master’s at the University of Denver. Besides her sister, she is survived by her father, Joseph B. Comstock Jr. of Claremont, Calif., and brothers Sam Comstock of Mountain View, Calif., and Ned Comstock of Los Angeles.
