Elizabeth Gottschalk

Elizabeth Laura Lu “Laura” Gottschalk lost her yearlong battle with cancer on Friday, January 6, 2023.

Laura was an exceptional woman. She was the youngest child of a large and loving family from Detroit. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Education in 1953.  At that time, it was not common for any woman to go to college much less a woman from a working-class family.

Laura worked as a teacher either full or part time while navigating multiple moves and the needs of a growing family at a time when it was uncommon for women with families to work outside of the home. Laura returned to school to get her Masters Degree in Library Science (1972) while juggling a cross country move, and working and raising four children at a time when it was uncommon for anyone, much less a woman, to change careers midstream. She did all of this while providing her husband and children with a loving and supportive home.

Laura was an extraordinary wife, an extraordinary mother, an extraordinary friend and an extraordinary role model.

Laura is preceded in death by her husband, Richard R. Gottschalk, and is survived by her sons Richard Jr., and Laurence, and daughters Karen and Paula. She also leaves behind six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

A Memorial Mass will be held on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 12:30pm at Horan & McConaty Funeral Home, 3101 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood, CO 80227. A Shelter Service will follow at Fort Logan National Cemetery at 2:30pm. For those who wish to attend her Shelter Service, it is asked that you arrive at Staging Area B no later than 2:15pm.

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