Kathryn Whittier Gough

August 29, 1920 - November 13, 2015

95, of Pebble Beach, CA died Friday, November 13th. Born in Stillwater, MN and raised in St. Paul and later St. Cloud, MN Kathryn grew up as the middle of four daughters of the prison warden in St. Cloud, MN. Notably, the family lived in the warden’s house which was on the prison grounds and was served by prisoners on “good behavior”. In one of her memorials she wrote “It was an unusual sort of life…my sisters and I were driven to and from town (by trustee inmates) to school but it was hard to arrange any spontaneous afterschool activities”. Kathryn married Dr. Harrison Gough in January of 1943. This notable event occurred in -43 degree, St. Cloud weather and was later the same week followed by +90 degree weather in San Antonio TX, where Harrison was stationed during WWII. She worked as the personal driver for the commanding general on the military base in San Antonio, a bank teller, a nursery school director and an office worker during the war years. Kathryn obtained a Bachelor of Science in Child Welfare and a teaching credential from the University of Minnesota in 1946 and enjoyed membership in Chi Omega Sorority. She taught kindergarten in Minneapolis while her husband completed his Ph.D. After the war, Kathryn and Harrison moved to Berkeley were Harrison was a professor at the University of California from 1950 to 1986. Kathryn’s main focus was on their daughter Jane who was born in 1950. Harrison’s research took them to Italy twice for sabbaticals, first in Florence from 1958 to 1959, then to Rome from 1965 to 1966. She was busy with university faculty activities, entertaining many interesting people from around the world through her husband’s cross-cultural research, and volunteered for many years at the P.E.O. Nearly New Shop in the Bay Area. After Harrison’s retirement they built a home in Pebble Beach and traveled often to Europe and the UK. Kathryn has been described as “impeccably turned out” and with a “self-deprecating sense of humor”. She is survived by daughter Jane and son-in-law Jeff, grandchildren Brendon and Kevin and granddaughter-in-law Nallyre, and great grand children Shirin and Harrison. The family would like to particularly thank Doctor Craig E. Christensen and the great staff of CHOMP, the PEO sisters on the Monterey Peninsula, and the American Cancer Discovery Shop in Pacific Grove, were she loved to serve. Private services have been held.