Rotarian Jan Dantone Featured in Local Paper

Rotary Club of Kingsville is proud of our own Jan Dantone.  She was featured for her lifetime of experience and good works in The Kingsville Record on August 27.  We already knew she was amazing, and we are pleased that it has been shared with the rest of our town!
 
 
Read the article:  Here.
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Former Air Force pilot finds joy in serving congregation, community

by Gloria Bigger-Cantu
Contributing Reporter
 
The Rev. Jan Dantone of the Epiphany Episcopal Church said her focus is being the best minister of the gospel while serving her congregation and community. As the rector and priest, Dantone’s leadership role includes responsibility for all worship and the parish's spiritual welfare. “I find joy in serving the congregation and the community,” she said. Dantone became the rector, priest, about four years ago. Dantone said as a religious leader her intent is that every message she shares with others is grounded in the gospel. “God promises to be with us in all circumstances, a message that is especially important to hear in time of pandemic,” Dantone said. She is the first rector and priest at the church, but she said she does not dwell on that because there have been many women clergy leaders since the Seventies.

She was encouraged to seek a religious vocation by her Episcopal priest and his wife while living in Florida. She pursued this vocation and earned a Master of Divinity degree in 2005 from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa. After she graduated from the seminary, she was invited to be the Associate Rector at St. John the Divine in Houston where she was for about 11 years before moving here.

Dantone also had a military career. She decided to follow her father’s footsteps and joined the service. “My dad was an Air Force pilot; he loved flying and he loved serving his country,” Dan- tone said. “He and my mom taught my brother and me the value of service.” She said when she was a senior in high school the Air Force Academy opened pilot training to women. “Now the door was open for me to follow my dad into the cockpit,” Dantone said. She attended the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and management in 1981. Dantone served in active duty with the U.S. Air Force for seven years and was a pilot and pilot instructor. “Military service is about teaching leadership,” she said. During this time, she also received a Masters of Science in Management from Troy State University in 1984. While in the  military she lived in Del Rio, Texas, Walton Beach, Florida, and Mesa, Arizona.

As a child Dantone recalled the family lived mostly on bases in Texas, the Philippines, Oklahoma, Alabama, California, Virginia, Germany and England. “I lived in all these places before my eighteenth birthday, “she said. Dantone was also a stay at home mom for 11 years. She was glad she was a full-time mom and able to nurture her children just like her mother had done with her and her brother. “I followed  my father’s footsteps and my mother’s too and that was a wonderful blend of those two things.” Her three grown children are college educated. Her husband Hal was also an Air Force pilot.

Longtime church member Nick Harrel III said Dantone was very intelligent and an effective leader who is a good communicator and open to suggestions. ”Her sermons are Bible based and she relates them to current times,” Harrel said.