Kathleen Frances Fowler was born in San Antonio, Texas, on November 8, 1946. Four years later her brother David was born. Kathleen’s early life was difficult—to escape from her family, she married at 15 and then divorced soon after. Determined to finish her education, she spent her first year in college at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and then completed her degree at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

In 1968, she got in her car with all her possessions (the last time that would be possible!) and drove to San Francisco. After a series of jobs and getting an MBA from Golden Gate University, in 1971 she was hired as the first female bank examiner by the 12th District of Federal Reserve Bank. The job required extensive travel throughout the Western states. As Kathleen described it, she would get on the “business” flight Monday morning and be among the very few women on the plane. She had, by her description, boyfriends in many cities. After some time, she shifted roles into public relations for the bank. Later in life, Kathleen would regale friends with stories of the characters from the bank.

Tired of the Federal Reserve, she quit. A friend from an accounting firm called and said he had a client who had set up a medical practice and essentially just threw his bills and checks into a suitcase. Could she help him set up an accounting system? Within a year, Kathleen had more of this sort of business than she could handle by herself. She decided not to hire anyone but instead, was very selective as to who she worked for. Over the years she set up accounting systems for some prominent doctors and lawyers but also various other people including Primo Angeli, an internationally recognized designer and Joan Brown, a noted artist whose works are in the DeYoung Museum and a portrait of Kathleen’s cat, Pasha, hangs in our house.

On January 19, 1985, at a singles event called the Black Ball held in the Green Room of the War Memorial Opera House, Kathleen met Jeffrey Pfeffer, a full professor at Stanford Business School. As she would often say, no algorithm would have put the two of them together. They married on July 23, 1986. Kathleen insisted that they live in San Francisco, which they did in a house on Twin Peaks. In 1999, with Kathleen’s knees in ever-worsening shape, they moved to Hillsborough, first to a house on Mosely Road and later to the one on N. San Raymundo Rd. Over the years, Kathleen and Jeffrey traveled together to 42 countries.

On August 27, 2020, Kathleen, always the picture of health, suffered a stroke—a very small stroke in a very bad place. For the next year, she had 24x7 care as she worked hard to get better through intensive in-home physical therapy. She regained some mobility but remained quite limited in what she could do and was still dependent on her caregivers.On September 10, 2021, in the house that she had once lived in San Francisco, Kathleen engineered her departure from this world. She died on September 11.

Today we celebrate Kathleen’s humor, beauty, and her unwavering determination and courage to live—and leave—life on her own terms. The hole in our hearts is a tribute to who she was, and is.

Jeffrey Pfeffer