Jan died August 10, 2018. After graduation from high school, he moved to Missoula where he went to the University of Montana for three years before starting his smokejumping in 1966.

After a stint in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War he went back to smokejumping. Jan jumped at Missoula 1966, West Yellowstone 1968, Anchorage 1970 and '72 and Fairbanks in 1973 and '75.

He spent his summers working on the pipeline and driving heaving equipment in Alaska and winters in the Seas of Cortez on his sailboat.