Judy A. Harlan

Judith Horn Harlan, 64, of Fallston, MD, died on Saturday, January 19, 2008 following a brief illness. Born December 5, 1943 in Louisville, KY, she was the daughter of the late Thomas W. and Hazel Lewis Horn. She was a 1961 graduate of Durrett High School and a 1965 graduate of the University of Louisville, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Childhood Education. Judy taught school for 16 years in Louisville and in 1983 she moved with her husband, Bill Harlan, to Belvedere Farm in Fallston, MD. In the late 1980’s, she began growing and marketing quality fresh vegetables from a stand at the farm. Beginning in 1990, she also began to provide preschool groups educational farm experiences. She explained in a 1993 Sun paper article, “I enjoy working with children and as my husband said, we had an underutilized teacher and an underutilized barn. So we created a farm setting inside the barn as a learning laboratory.” Over the course of 14 years, some 50, 000 students, parents and teachers visited the farm. Judy was also instrumental in starting the October weekends at Belvedere Farm that provided opportunities for many families to take hayrides to the pumpkin fields to pick their own pumpkins and visit the farm animals. In 1999, Judy embarked on a new enterprise for Belvedere Farm: growing field cut flowers and selling a variety of those flowers to individuals, designers, and florists in the Baltimore and Washington markets. In all of her endeavors, her motto was “ It’s got to be done right.” Judy was active in the agricultural community as a board member of both the Harford County Agricultural Marketing Cooperative, Inc. and the Economic Development Agricultural Advisory Board. She also served as one of the founding board members of Harford Friends School.

In addition to her husband, Bill Harlan, she is survived by her son W. Ross Shellhamer of Glen Arm, MD; stepson Clifford Harlan and his partner, Steven Barhite, of San Francisco, CA; stepdaughter, Beth Harlan and her husband, Randolph Kline, of El Cerrito, CA; along with sisters-in-law, Margaret S. Horn of Lexington, KY, Elizabeth Breidenbaugh of Glen Arm, MD, Alice Remsberg of Fallston, MD, and Mary Ellen Saterlie of Baltimore, MD. In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by a brother, Richard L. “Dick” Horn of Lexington, KY on Saturday, January 12, 2008.

Contributions may be sent to the Judith Harlan, Harford Friends School Scholarship Fund in care of Little Falls Friends Meeting, P.O. Box 240, Fallston, MD 21047.