Kathryn Ellen Neary

April 14, 1961—April 17, 2026

Kathy was born in Agawam, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1961 and passed away on April 17, 2026. She was the fourth of five children and the first daughter. Her family moved frequently, as her father was a West Point graduate and an officer in the Army. His assignments took them to multiple army bases in Georgia, Utah, and Kansas, as well as overseas to the Panama Canal Zone, where Kathy and her siblings walked to school through the tropical rain forest.

At the beginning of Kathy’s sophomore year in high school, her family moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. In the sister city of Sierra Vista, Kathy attended Buena High School and graduated in 1979. Kathy was an exceptional student and enjoyed a variety of activities and friendships from her participation in girls’ basketball, the Spanish Honor Society, the National Honor Society, and bird watching. She took many science classes and was known for her keen insights and wry sense of humor. After graduation, Kathy enrolled at the University of Arizona and majored in biochemistry. She spent one summer as a nanny in Dublin, Ireland, the land of her ancestry, and she worked in on-campus science laboratories at the UofA during the other summers.

A standout in academia, particularly in science, Kathy enrolled in the Department of Human Genetics at Yale University in the fall of 1983 as a graduate student, and she earned her PhD in 1988. She was Professor Daniel DiMaio’s first graduate student out of his eventual 80 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She may have also been one of his most unusual, as she was not shy about deliberately and constructively speaking her mind, and in their frank discussions, he may have learned as much from her as she did from him.

Kathy’s area of focus for her PhD was bovine papilloma virus genetics. After graduation, she conducted research on scrapie, a neurological disease, at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, for two years. She next worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle for two years, followed by the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix for one year.

Kathy received a call to the ministry in 1994 while still in Seattle. The next year, she enrolled in St. Paul’s School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri and earned a Master’s of Divinity in 1998. While a seminary student, she was a pastor at three United Methodist Churches in Iowa. Services were at 9, 10, and 11 am, and she drove very quickly between the three churches. Obligingly, her sermons needed to be short and crisp, and in the true Methodist tradition, she kept the services under an hour.

After ordination, Kathy returned to the Pacific Northwest. She strongly wished to work with college students, and she was appointed to Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. She enjoyed the mission trips overseas — including Angkor Wat, Cambodia, and Mexico — Monday night dinners provided by the Simpson United Methodist Church, and the student-led worship service held every semester. After five years at WSU, she spent three years as the pastor at both the Green Lake United Methodist Church in Seattle, Washington and the Connell United Methodist Church. She also served for seven years at the Orchards United Methodist Church in Vancouver, Washington.

Later in her career, Kathy worked as an interim pastor at the McMinnville Cooperative Ministries, a joint Methodist and ELCA Church in Oregon, and at the United Methodist Church in Goldendale, Washington. She was then appointed the transitional ministry developer under the direction of Bishop Elaine Stanovsky. She helped small churches transition to their next step of ministry.

An avid sports fan, Kathy closely followed the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners. Gratefully, the Seahawks won Super Bowl LX in February, giving her joy (and relief). She continued to hold out hope for the Mariners winning the World Series, and she was able to catch an early-April game against the Yankees this season.

Kathy was a lifelong learner and a gifted intellectual, always ready to engage in discussion and with a keen appetite to master numerous subjects. It is unclear if she ever forgot a fact she learned. A trip to a science museum with her could take hours, as she read every sign and spoke with every docent. She was not afraid to approach total strangers with questions and engaged in a lifetime of such conversations. Within the ministry, feminist Biblical interpretation was her passion, as well as discipleship practices. A talented writer, she recently co-authored a stimulating five-part series on what modern discipleship might look like.

Kathy was devoted to her family and had a wonderfully loyal group of friends and colleagues. She delighted in taking her grand-nieces and grand-nephews to McDonald’s and Barnes & Noble. She enjoyed trips abroad to Italy and Ireland with her beloved sister. She cared for numerous family members and, until her death, stayed connected to treasured relatives in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Edward F. and Mary Ellen Neary, and brothers, Edward L. and Thomas R. Neary. She is survived by her sister Laura Nelson, brother James, sister-in-law Angela Neary, nieces Heather (Joe) Moakley and Megan (Stephan) Zubia, nephew Brian (Kristen) Neary, grand-nieces Ella and Lilah, and grand-nephews Giovanni and Dominic. She was grateful for the compassionate care of Eden Hospice.

Until her death, she stayed true to herself – brave, thoughtful, kind, curious, and inquisitive. Surely, she has already been named head of the debate club in heaven. Her strength, conviction, and moral compass serve as an inspiration to us all, and we will miss her dearly.

A Service of Death and Resurrection will be held at First United Methodist Church in Vancouver, Washington (401 E 33rd St., Vancouver, WA 98663) on Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m., with fellowship and refreshments to follow. It will also be live-streamed on the church’s YouTube channel.