| Katherine Barhydt Dickie was born Sept 2, 1956 at St. Joesph’s
Hospital in Santa Monica, California. She was raised in the beach town
of Playa del Rey, California by her parents, Hamilton "Hap" and Janet
Barhydt. Some of her favorite childhood memories where of walking to the
beach from the house, “rockyco” (her mother rocking her in an antique
rocking chair that remains in the family to this day), annual backyard
parties complete with a candy-filled piñata hung from the badminton
court poles, and family vacations sailing to Catalina Island on the
family sailboat with Windjammers Yacht Club. She attended Westchester High School, in Los Angeles, where she was a cheerleader and graduated near the top of her class of 800 students. She spent her first two years of college at University of California San Diego's Revel College, and transferred to University of California Los Angeles to be nearer to her family. She graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She went on to do graduate studies at California Institute of Technology (CalTech) on a full scholarship from Sandia where she worked the summer between college and graduate school. At CalTech she earned a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. She returned Sandia National Research Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico working on cooling options for Nuclear Reactors for a year, then returned to the Los Angeles area. She took a job at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California in the thermal modeling department where she worked on the Galileo spacecraft that ultimately went to Jupiter. After a few years, she moved to a new group at JPL working on the most sophisticated battlefield simulation ever developed, rising to the role of System Engineer. Kate married David W. Dickie on October 13th, 1990. They had their first child, Brianna Louise Dickie, on July 19th, 1991 and their second child, William Barhydt Dickie, on February 10th, 1993. The family moved to Acton, Massachusetts in June of 1993, where Kate took a position at Mitre Corporation as Systems Engineer, running a team of 25 engineers studying joint missile defense systems. Kate retired from Mitre to become a full time mom in September, 1996. Kate started a jewelry business in 2002, eventually creating Katydids Jewelry, a staple of many of the local craft fairs for the last several years, and also making custom jewelry with silver, gold, pearls, and semiprecious gems. Kate returned to the workforce in April 2009, taking a position as a Operations Analyst at State Street Global Advisors in the OTC Derivatives group. Kate was diagnosed with metastasized lung cancer in January, 2010, despite not being a smoker. She continued working, receiving a Personal Excellence award and a major promotion in 2010, and left in 2012 when her health would no longer allow her to work. After her diagnosis, she traveled with her husband to Turks And Caicos islands, England, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Aruba, and Santa Catalina island for vacations. She is survived by her husband David W. Dickie, her children, Brianna Louise Dickie and William Barhydt Dickie, her mother Janet Bell Garber, step-father William Frances Garber and her sister Anne Barhydt Krall. There will be a memorial service at the Acton Congregational Church on Friday, October 5th, at 1:00 pm, followed by a reception, and a memorial service and reception in Los Angeles, California, date to be announced. The family requests donations to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. |