This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 20, 2011 - One year ago, almost to the day of his recent death, Robert Jansson sat down to give a wide-ranging interview about his life. The first question on tap: "How did you ever end up in St. Louis?"
Mr. Jansson, a native Londoner, spent the first 40 years of his life in the United Kingdom. By the time he made St. Louis his home in 1981, he had been a scientist, a university professor, and he had written two mystery novels.
"He was a complicated character," said his son, Carl. "Dad grew up in a household with a bunch of cousins and aunts from diverse walks of life, a cast of performers, musicians, artisans, sailors and craftsmen. He had formal scientific training, but he was very creative as well. There were a lot of different aspects to him."
Mr. Jansson, who had been diagnosed with cancer in 2002, died at Missouri Baptist Hospital on Thursday, Jan. 13. He was 74 and had lived in Chesterfield.
Funeral services will be held Friday morning at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
The Writer
"Irina Nagy waited impatiently for her killer."
Without preamble, readers are hurled into a world of artistic mayhem created by Mr. Jansson in his fourth and final novel, "Feet First." It is a mystery set on the international stage -- London, Moscow, the Caribbean -- in the world of ballet, a respectful nod to the dancers in his family, including his daughter, Zoe.
He moved easily between writing scientific publications for his work and building make-believe worlds that drew on his scientific background and world travel.
"Mysteries are sort of fun," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2009, the year 'Feet First' was published. "It's almost like the scientific process."
He loved and appreciated both worlds.
"I decided early on that it was easier to be a professional scientist than an amateur writer," he said. "More profitable, certainly."
Mr. Jansson wrote his first two novels, both mysteries, "Meet Me in Munich" and "News Caper," while working as a professor in England. He took to writing full time after retiring in 2001. He published his third book, "Kari's Saga," a historical novel, in 2008, quickly followed by "Feet First," a title he came to rue.
"He thought the title got lost among the podiatry books," said his wife, Nikki.
The Would-be Sailor
Robert Edward Walroos Jansson (he used the Swedish pronunciation "Yansson") was born Sept. 24, 1936, in the city of Westminster, a central borough of London. He was the only child of Carl and Alice Jansson, a homemaker and an electrical engineer. He grew up in wartime, with his parents both working during the day, and his father moonlighting at night with the London Fire Service putting out fires from the bombing in the London docks. After he and his mother were evacuated to stay with relatives in Plymouth, the house in which they were staying was demolished.
As life returned to normal, he dreamed not of being an author or a scientist. Not even a teacher. He wanted to join the Navy because of his lifelong fascination with the sea and sailing. He sailed vicariously through Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" and C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" series, and later, Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books.
He let it be known that he was headed for a life on the high seas. Recognizing his talents and sharp mind, a teacher suggested he consider attending university and then perhaps join the service. The Royal Navy was forever missing a sailor.
Mr. Jansson went on to earn a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of London in 1959, then a Ph.D. from Queen Mary College at the University of London in 1962.
Wedding bells quickly followed graduation and Mr. Jansson and his newly minted bride, the former Dorothy Elizabeth "Nikki" Mossop, moved to Los Angeles, where he did post-doctoral research in chemical physics at the University of California in Los Angeles.
The Scientist and Teacher
In short order, the couple returned to England, where Mr. Jansson worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, then subsequently taught in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at the University of Southampton. He later became an associate professor in the Electrochemistry Department at the University of Southampton, where he continued to teach undergraduate and graduate students, lead research activities, and launch startup businesses. Still fascinated by the sea, he also helped design improved ship propellers for the Navy.
During this period, he also became a consultant to Monsanto. In 1981, he joined Monsanto on a full-time basis and moved his family to St. Louis. He spent 18 years at Monsanto, rising through the ranks and running various business units, including facilities in the U.S., Great Britain, Belgium, Japan, Russia and Ukraine. He left Monsanto in 1999 as the general manager of the High Performance Materials unit and assistant chief scientist. He then joined Energizer as general manager of Advanced Technology, retiring in 2001.
But he remained first and foremost a teacher.
"When he moved from academia to corporate life, he stayed a teacher," Carl said. "He was still mentoring people, still helping people. He did that across the spectrum."
His friend of more than 20 years, Erwin "Pete" Peters, executive director of Innovate Venture Mentoring Service, agreed with that assessment. Mr. Jansson had volunteered with InnovativeVMS, a nonprofit organization that matches new business ideas with volunteer mentors, since it was established here in 2007.
"Bob was on 16 mentoring teams," Peters said. "He brought a science background, rigorous thought and very good communications to the mentoring sessions. He provided sound advice that was well received."
The Next Chapter
At the time of his death, Mr. Jansson was working on his fifth book, a collection of stories to pass on to his children and grandchildren about his eclectic family and, perhaps, a bit about a scientist and teacher who became a mystery writer. The book stops around the time he met Nikki, when she was 16 and he 21. There was so much more to tell.
"He was sad that his last book had not been completed," said Nikki, whose nickname is a piece of the family lore: After avowing that she did not like the shortened versions of her given name of Dorothy ("Dot" or "Dodie"), Mr. Jansson cleverly deemed her "Nick" -- short for "Nickname," which became Nikki. It stuck.
In addition to his wife and his son Carl (Jana) of St. Charles, Mr. Jansson is survived by another son, Niall (Edie) of St. Louis and one daughter Zoe (Ian) Jansson-Smith of Ballwin; seven grandchildren: Kelsey, Chris, Jennifer, Amber, Morgan, Colin and Hailey; and a brother-in-law, Roger (Sue) Mossop of Hampshire, England.
Visitation for Mr. Jansson will be from 4-8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 20, at the Schrader Funeral Home and Crematory, 14960 Manchester Road at Holloway, in Ballwin. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 21, at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 110 North Warson Road, St. Louis, 63124. Interment is at St. Peter's Episcopal Columbarium.
If desired, contributions may be made in memory of Mr. Jansson to Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University, Campus Box 1204, 7425 Forsyth Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105-2161.
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.