Jessica Marie Green: September 4, 1977 – June 12, 2018
TEMPE, AZ – Jessica Marie Green of Tempe, Arizona, passed away peacefully in her sleep alongside family on June 12, 2018 at the age of 40. Diagnosed with MDS in November 2017, Jessica unfortunately lost her long battle with acute myeloid leukemia after multiple stays at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.
Jessica Marie Cole was born on September 4, 1977 in Saginaw, Michigan to Douglass Lyal and Diane Marie (Dreffs) Cole. She is survived by her husband Andrew, her parents, her sister Kathleen (Joseph) Schaar, her stepmother Karen, her brother Noah, and her nieces and nephew Ashley, Cole, and Rachel.
Jessica spent the first 18 years of her life in Michigan. She graduated from Saginaw’s Heritage High School in 1995, and moved across the nation shortly afterwards to attend Arizona State University. Jessica graduated from ASU in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Management. It was at ASU that Jessica met her future husband in 1997. Jessica and Andrew married February 2, 2002 in Orlando, Florida and built a home in Gilbert, Arizona. Jessica also obtained a Master of Science in Information Management in 2008 from ASU. In 2016, Andrew and Jessica relocated to Tempe, Arizona.
Jessica worked at a multitude of technology jobs during her career, slowly climbing the ladder until at one point she was managing multiple teams. She took each new challenge head on, and learned the skills needed for whatever new role she had obtained. Prior to her passing, Jessica had been working for Maricopa County Community College District since 2005.
Jessica always had a love of genealogy, music, technology, photography, and travel. She was an active genealogist who connected multiple families, plotted family trees, and scoured records at the behest of others. She always wanted to experience new sights and sounds: listening to boisterous music, exploring the latest tech, and visiting far off places. She attended hundreds of concerts, learned multiple computer languages, took thousands of photos, and travelled all over the US and Europe. Jessica was always looking to improve herself by learning new hobbies and skills. Very few things scared her and Jessica was always looking to try something new.
Cancer took Jessica away from us far too early. Jessica had a tremendous impact on her family and friends. More significantly, she had the biggest effect on her husband. Andrew learned and grew tremendously under her guidance and with her support across these past 21 years. He would not be half the person he is today had she not been by his side. Jessica will be missed terribly by all that knew her.
A private celebration of Jessica’s life will be held sometime this summer. For those that wish to honor her memory, Jessica had requested that individuals donate blood as often as they could. Anonymous blood donations were crucial to Jessica’s care during the last months of her life.
