Kathleen McNabb Hackstaff

Kathleen McNabb Hackstaff, devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother passed away February 16 surrounded by family after a long illness near Golden, where her grandparents homesteaded beginning in 1888. She was born in the copper mining town of Superior, Arizona on August 7, 1929 to Eleanora Gorman McNabb and James Charles McNabb. Her father passed away in 1942, after which Kathleen and her mother moved to Phoenix. Kathleen attended and graduated from Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in Pasadena, California. A true woman before her time, she went on to graduate from the University of Arizona with a major in Microbiology and a minor in Chemistry. She also completed the Medical Technology program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In 1952, she married Colorado native and love of her life, Cyrus Allan (Allan) Hackstaff, Jr. They were blessed with five children to whom they dedicated their lives, and they shared 52 happy years of marriage before Allan passed away in 2004. Kathleen was an avid reader and researcher who believed in the power of education to change lives, encouraging all those around her to value a lifetime of learning. Over the years, she and her husband Allan made the University of Colorado, his alma mater, their special project. True Coloradans, they spent much of their free time in the mountains, building a cabin in Grand Lake early in their marriage and later owning a ranch near Granby with two of their sons. Kathleen was an active volunteer, donating her time to organizations including the Junior League of Denver, the Western History Desk at the Denver Public Library, the Denver Symphony Orchestra and the Institute for International Education where she provided insightful tours of the Denver area to foreign visitors. No matter how busy she was serving these organizations, she always made time to participate in or simply celebrate her children's and grandchildren's many programs and activities. She is remembered with great love and admiration by the many members of the Hackstaff, Cowperthwaite and Bruckman families for her years of dedication to organizing the annual Christmas reunion and ensuring its continuance . Her family history—as well as the history of the Hackstaff Family—was so important to Kathleen and her memory was so detailed that she was able to collaborate with her children to informally publish her autobiography in 2014. In it, she recounted the many memories of her life: growing up in the high desert of Superior, Arizona; marrying Allan, a lifetime Colorado booster, and becoming thoroughly enamored with the Colorado way of life; and teaching her family to recognize and appreciate their roots and family history. Beloved by her family and many friends, she is survived by her children and their spouses: Judith Hackstaff Forsha (Michael), Rus Hackstaff (Laura), James Hackstaff (Kay), Mary Hackstaff Logan (Robert), and Donald Hackstaff (Karen); thirteen grandchildren: Daniel Forsha (Kathy), Gregory Forsha (Jennifer), Callan Hackstaff (Kathleen), Jesse Hackstaff, Anna Hackstaff Kononenko (Igor), Natalie Hackstaff Mazur (Jordan), Eleanor Hackstaff, Alexa Tierney-Mahs (Rodrigo), Joshua Logan, James Logan, Joseph Logan, Oscar Hackstaff and Madeline Hackstaff; and five great-grandchildren Julianna Forsha, Katelyn Forsha, Kaden Forsha, Brynnley Forsha and Valentino Hackstaff. Rosary service will be held at St. Bernadette Catholic Church on Thursday evening, February 23, 2017, at 7:00PM. Funeral mass will be held on Friday at 10:00AM at the church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made on behalf of Kathleen Hackstaff to St. Bernadette Catholic School, 1100 Upham Street, Lakewood, CO 80214, 303-237-0401, to support scholarships for underprivileged children, or to the Book Trust at www.booktrust.org, which provides books for children who otherwise would have no books of their own.