Kathleen "Kathy" E. Mortensen

Born in Denver Colorado 8/16/1936 to Bill and Elizabeth Goddard. She has 3 sisters Marjorie, Rena and Chris. She belonged to a very large Irish Catholic family which she loved being a part of.

The family moved to Bremerton, Washington in 1941 and returned to Denver in 1945. Kathy attended St. Francis De Sales Catholic School through the 9th grade then went to Lakewood High School – graduated in 1954 & immediately went to work for the Bureau of Reclamation.

She met Noland (Mac) Mortensen in 1954, fell in love and got married on October 30, 1954. She continued to work until her children were born. She has three daughters. Sherry(deceased), Terry and Karen. She is survived by Terry and her husband Jim Walker, Karen and her husband Brian Wages and their children Hannah Wages, Trevor and Hannah Stafford-Wages, Hayden, Madi and Fletcher Wages (great grand daughter), and Logan Wages. Jamie, Summer and Drew Brassfield. Jennifer Roark and Russ Constable.

After her children were all in school, Kathy enrolled at Metropolitan State College where she earned an Associate’s Degree in Nursing. In September 1971, Kathy had the privilege to work for St. Anthony’s North hospital in their ‘med-surg’ area until a new intensive care unit was opened. She worked as a critical care staff nurse until December of 1973 when Mac was transferred to Minneapolis, Minnesota. In September of 1974, Kathy joined the Intensive Coronary care staff at Methodist hospital in St. Louis Park, Minnesota until returning to Colorado where Kathy came back to work for the St. Anthony’s hospital system. In 1984, Kathy also had the privilege to work for the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care where she was part of teams in creating the Medicare/Medicaid guidelines for the State of Colorado. Kathy went to work for Spaulding Rehabilitation, where she fell in love with rehab medicine and ended her career there.

Kathy and Mac had many loves... They learned to Sail while in Minnesota and purchased their own boat when back in Colorado. That was a very happy place for the two of them and enjoyed sharing that experience with many of their family and friends. They created many friend groups along their path. The Roadrunners were friends from their corporate life that became lifelong companions! Later in their lives one of their Roadrunner friends, Bob Mueller, got them involved in a Marine Corp group that helped them reacquaint with a younger generation of Marines. This was a very important experience for them.

My mother had maintained friendships from her childhood, high school, young married life and her career. She cherished these people!