Kathleen R. Boggs

Dr. Kathleen Ray Boggs, known as Kathy to family and friends, passed away on June 14, 2022 in Denver, Colorado at the home of her sister, Karen Mendez. She lived successfully with metastatic Stage IV breast cancer for almost 10 years before the cancer ended her life.

Kathy was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on March 26, 1942, to Ray and Myrtle Boggs. She attended Proviso East Township High School in Maywood, Illinois, where her parents met as students, and later graduated from Ben Lomond High School in Ogden, Utah. At Ben Lomond, Kathy served as Girls Association President during her senior year. Kathy loved learning and continued her education at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She earned a BA in Psychology, an MS in Educational Psychology, and a PhD in Counseling Psychology and became a licensed psychologist. While an undergraduate, Kathy was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority and served as Chapter President during her senior year.

Finding a home in academia, Kathy embarked on a 33-year career with the University of Utah, starting as a psychometrist and ending her Utah tenure as the Director of Training and Associate Director of the University Counseling Center. In 1999, seeking new experiences and advancement in her career, Kathy accepted the position of Director of the Counseling Center at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Under her leadership, the center provided high quality mental health services to students and engaged in community partnerships.
Retiring from her full-time position in 2006, Kathy then turned her attention to teaching at Missouri as an Associate Teaching Professor with the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology. In this role she specialized in preparing masters and doctoral students for internships and professional positions. Additionally, Kathy focused on clinical training, especially supervision of counseling providers, ethics, and counseling theory and practice. She also took advantage of opportunities to be involved in campus mediation, multicultural issues, and cross-cultural transitions with international students.

The COVID pandemic brought Kathy new challenges in teaching and interacting with her students over Zoom, and she became adept at remote teaching. Her students were a joy in her life, and she was deeply committed to seeing them succeed. Despite terminal cancer, Kathy pushed herself to complete Spring semester 2022 on Zoom, ending her teaching career on a positive note with her students.

Kathy supported her profession and its advancement by being a member of the American Psychology Association (APA) and other professional societies and was a respected editor for several professional journals including The Counseling Psychologist and The Journal of Psychology. A highlight of her career was being elected Fellow of the APA Society of Counseling Psychology.

Kathy had a talent for creating and nurturing lasting friendships throughout her life and for committing to her extended family. She loved walking with friends on the Katy Trail near her home in Columbia, was always available to go to a concert or play, enjoyed book club discussions, looked forward to the Wakonse Conference on College Teaching each year, and traveled the world with her lifelong friend Marcia. A highlight for Kathy and Marcia was being passengers on the final 2008 New York to Southampton crossing of the QE 2. Kathy loved to ski and hike in the mountains, made a fabulous carrot cake, couldn't resist homemade brownies, a sale, or a good stock investment. She always had time to explore a problem with a friend or family member, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people.

Kathy was preceded in death by her parents. She is fondly remembered and survived by her sister, Karen Mendez, who provided excellent, loving care to Kathy during her final days; by her brother, Brian (Kathy) Boggs of Mountain View, California; and by her brother David Boggs, MD of Helena Montana. Kathy was also a loving aunt to her seven nieces and nephews and to her nine great nieces and nephews. Kathy's ashes will be interred next to her parents and maternal grandparents in Boulder, Colorado.