Obituary, Dr. Karen Mae Creswell

Dr. Karen Mae Creswell
June 11, 1947 – June 28, 2019

 

Dr. Karen Mae Creswell died June 28, 2019, at her home in Salem, Ore. She was a clinical psychologist who practiced in Portland and Salem. Karen suffered from Progressive Supernuclear Palsy (“PSP”) and endured a long and difficult physical decline with grace, intelligence, good humor and love. There is no known treatment for this disease. She would want you to know about PSP. She would encourage you to support scientific research for this and other devastating neurological conditions.

Karen grew up on a beautiful, multi-generational farm at Attlebury, in the town Stanford, Dutchess County, New York. She was the daughter of Wilbur Neveling Creswell and Marion Simmons Creswell and was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., June 11, 1947.

She loved the outdoors. She said that her rural childhood experience gave her a sense of place. In her own words, “The cow paths my siblings and I followed as children became the trails of the Western mountains. The mountains we climbed back then became the Cascade mountains of Oregon and the Sierras of California. Our clothespin boats became rafts floating down the Deschutes, Owyhee and John Day rivers. Riding our bikes turned into bicycle treks across the huge hills of Oregon.”

She was a gifted athlete. In her 20’s, she was an instructor for both the Northwest and Minnesota Outward Bound schools. As a cyclist, she participated in 10 Cycle Oregon bicycle rides and was affectionately known to her friends as “Ride Boss.” She backpacked the length of the John Muir Trail in California, climbed Mt. Hood (all three “sisters” in the Three Sisters Wilderness area), as well as Three Fingered Jack in the Cascade Mountains. Recently, she was honored by her high school, Pine Plains Central School in Pine Plains, N.Y., as an outstanding pre-Title IX athlete — an era when girls’ sports were neither emphasized nor mandated by law. Toward the end of her long physical decline, she rode a recumbent bicycle with all controls on the right handlebar.

In 1969, Karen graduated first in her class from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. With the assistance of a National Science Foundation Fellowship, she received a Master’s Degree in microbiology from Stanford University. After participating and teaching in the Outward Bound program, however, she realized that her true calling was psychology. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She worked as a psychologist at the Delaunay Mental Health Center in Portland for 11 years and at the Counseling Center at Willamette University in Salem for 23 years. She also maintained a private practice in Portland.

Her proudest moment, however, was the day she married her partner, Michele Jane Lecher, in Multnomah County, Ore., March 5, 2004. Michelle was her wife and/or partner for 32 years. During her lifetime, she was profoundly encouraged to see the development of overwhelming support and legal rights for all LGBTQ people.

A lover of dogs and underdogs alike, her qualities of humor, compassion and deep sense of shared humanity are an inspiration for those she leaves behind including her siblings, Nancy J. Creswell (and husband, John P. Ostrum) of Montpelier, Vt., Jeffrey Simmons Creswell (and wife, Patricia), of Amenia, N.Y., Jane Creswell (and husband, Bruce Jaffe) of Chestnut Hill, Mass., Lynne Hilko (and husband, Joseph Hilko) of Balston Spa, N.Y., and Jill Creswell of Montpelier, Vt. Karen had a unique ability to connect individually with people, especially her 13 nieces and nephews. Cycle on to your next adventure, Ride Boss, you will be greatly missed and lovingly remembered.
Please sign the online guest book at www.oregonlive.com/obits

Author: Harlem Valley News