Jane Greer

Jane Greer

May 25, 1953 – July 22, 2025

Jane Greer, 72, passed away on July 22, 2025, in Bismarck, North Dakota following a three and a half week illness. 

Mass of Christian burial will be held at 10:00 AM, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at Church of Corpus Christi, 1919 N 2nd, St, Bismarck. 

Visitation will be held from 5:30-7:00 PM, Tuesday, July 29, at Parkway Funeral Service, 2330 Tyler Pkwy, Bismarck. A rosary/vigil service will begin at 7:00 PM. 

Burial will be held at St. Mary's Cemetery, Bismarck. 

Jane was a talented woman. In her professional life: a poet, a reviewer of books, an editor. In her social life, a woman who made many and lasting friendships in her community and around the world. To know Jane was to know that you would be appreciated by her and that you would share laughter and good humor.

Jane was born in Fort Madison, IA, on May 25, 1953, to Jack and Millie Ullrich. When Jane was in primary school, her family moved to Bettendorf IA, where she lived through her junior year in high school. Her family moved to Sioux Falls, SD, where she completed high school.

Jane briefly attended South Dakota State University. She would jokingly tell her husband Jim, when they were travelling south on I-29 past Brooking SD, that “I hear there is a pretty good school there.”

She resumed studies (seriously, this time) a few years later in Bismarck at the University of Mary (then known as Mary College) where she earned a BA in English.

She worked for the ND State Department of Transportation in the Public Information office for nearly 20 years. Following that, she worked in marketing as a writer. Her last job was at Kat Communications in Bismarck.

In 1981, Jane joined a tour of Great Britain that was organized by several smaller colleges in the western part of ND. On that tour she met her husband, Jim Luptak, then living in Killdeer ND, who had also joined the tour. They became inseparable during the tour and continued their relationship between Bismarck and Killdeer until Jim got a job in Bismarck. They married in 1984. In 1986, the family grew by one when they adopted their son Robert.

Jane spent a lot of time helping in the community. For several years she volunteered at Ministry on the Margins. At one point, while helping there, she worked with the homeless to make resumes and to prepare for job interviews. Prior to COVID she also did prison ministry at the ND State Penitentiary. Monday afternoons she would manage the switchboard for the sisters at Annunciation Monastery. She also helped visiting sisters from a Vietnamese monastery in Oregon who were attending the University of Mary. They benefitted from her help in navigating the English language.

Jane and Jim helped with Special Olympics as bowling and bocce coaches – generally the athletes had better scores than they did.

For many years, the two of them spent their autumn weekends helping out at Papa’s Pumpkin Patch – Jim running the trebuchet and Jane being the announcer (or, as she referred to herself, “the sultry voice of the Patch”).

Jane was active at her parish, the Church of Corpus Christi, on committees, as a eucharistic minister and as a lector. She was also an Oblate at Annunciation Monastery. She was also active in the Saint Serra Vocations Apostolate of Bismarck/Mandan as a program director.

Throughout her life, Jane loved language. In the 1980s she started and edited a quarterly poetry magazine, Plains Poetry Journal, that had nationwide and even international appreciation (one of her poetry contributors sent, along with his poems, a picture taken of him with his boss – Pope Saint John Paul II). She championed New Formalist poetry that used poetic tools and techniques to enhance the meaning of the poem. She continued Plains Poetry Journal for twelve years.

In 1986 she published her first collection of poetry (Bathsheba on the Third Day) through Duncan Press.

Then life got in the way and her poetic muse got quiet, only to wake up again in New Orleans in 2018 while she was sitting in a restaurant on Jackson Square during a vacation there with Jim. During the vacation she wrote many poems and, at home, continued to write more. She published this collection (Love Like a Conflagration) in 2020 through Lambing Press in Pittsburgh. Her poetry bound the spiritual with our daily life. Her book received many positive reviews, and she was asked to speak on several podcasts about her work.

In 2022, she published her second collection after the reawaking of her poetic life. The book (The World as We Know It Is Falling Away) was also published by Lambing Press. Jane was invited to read her poetry at several locations in Pittsburgh, at Franciscan University in Steubenville OH and at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul MN in the fall of 2023. She has also spoken at the University of Mary several times.

Jane was well into completing a new collection prior to her illness and had another poetry tour planned for 2026.

Jane was preceded in death by her parents, Jack and Millie Ullrich. She is survived by her husband Jim, her son Robert (Echo) Luptak (Billings MT), her grandson Dominic Rindahl (Billings MT), and her brother Walt Ullrich (Eagan MN).

Jane was a wonderful wife and mother, grandmother and friend and will be sorely missed by all.