Search by Name

Add a Memory

Send Flowers

Make a Donation

Share Obituary

DR. KAREN COOK McNALLY

About

Clovis High School California Institute of Technology

KAREN McNALLY Obituary

Dr. Karen Cook McNally, noted Seismologist and Geophysicist, transitioned from this life to the next on Saturday December 20, 2014. Karen was born in Clovis, CA on January 26, 1940, and led a life studying the scientific world. Karen was a graduate of Clovis High School which honored her by naming her Outstanding Graduate of the Decade. Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degrees were obtained at the University of California, Berkeley with Post Doctorate studies completed at the California Institute of Technology. She made a major breakthrough in earthquake research when she replotted California earthquakes and refined knowledge of the occurrences known as swarming. Working with the Costa Rican government and University of Costa Rica, she set up their earthquake program and placed seismographs throughout the country. She received Costa Rican awards from both the University and the federal government for her outstanding work. She lived in Davenport, CA at the time of her death, and will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Dr. McNally was preceded in death by her parents, Hans Peter Einar Cook, and Marion Edith Roughton Cook of Clovis, CA. She is survived by daughters, Kim Cook of New Orleans, LA, and Meredith Hurley, of San Luis Obispo, CA; son-in-law, Thomas Hurley; grandchildren, Benjamin, Timothy, and Shannon Hurley; brother, Jerry Einar Cook and his partner Nancy Comstock, of Clovis, CA; sister, Jean Howard Brown; brother-in-law, Phillip Brown, of Novato CA; nephews, Tosh Cook and wife Brittany, Todd Cook and Sara of Clovis, Robert Brown and Lise Mifsud of Atascadero, CA, and Marni Allison Brown of Pasadena. She was much loved by grandniece, Cambria Cook; and grandnephews, Carsten Cook, and Tosh Cook of Clovis, CA. The family wishes to extend their gratitude to the doctors and nurses at University of California, San Francisco hospital for their expert, loving, and attentive care during Karen's illness. In lieu of flowers, remembrances to UCSF, PO Box 45339, SF, CA 94145. Please make checks payable to the UCSF Foundation and indicate B0831 in memory of Dr. Karen McNally.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Fresno Bee from Jan. 9 to Jan. 10, 2015.

Memories and Condolences
for KAREN McNALLY

15 Entries

Edna Rosales

August 12, 2024

I constantly remember Karen. I had the privilege to be trusted in the care of Waldo, Oscar and I think the third one's name was Walter? I lived in her home in Santa Cruz and she lived in my parent's home in East Los Angeles during her visits to Los Angeles in the mid 90's. My parents also cherish many memories of Karen's expressed love and appreciation of my mother's cooking.

María Martínez Cruz

January 4, 2023

Dra. Mc Nally is always remembered at OVSICORI-UNA and in Costa Rica. I keep treasuring her points of views and advice.

Luciana Astiz

January 22, 2015

I met Karen upon arriving to the Seismo-Lab at Caltech as a graduate student. There, she offered her advice and warmth not only to me but to many others. I admired how Karen channeled her energy, knowledge and warmth into life long projects from starting the Richter Laboratory at U.C. Santa Cruz to her interest in Middle America tectonics that did not end on studying earthquakes but on a life-long support of OVSICORI in Costa Rica. To me, she has been a role model not only as a scientist but mostly as a person. I will miss her.

Jose Manuel Martinez Cruz

January 15, 2015

Condolencies to Karen McNally's Family and her Loved Ones

Dear Jerry: Thank you very much for your email and kind words. Of course I will translate my message for Karen's family and friends.
Karen knew everything about my dream of "planting trees forever" located in Costa Rica and also about my project "Shoes Forever". A project that provides school shoes for kids living in extreme poverty. She also shared with me all about her dreams about the need of opening an observatory in Costa Rica to monitor the volcanic and seismic activity. Karen is a real hero and we Costa Rican are in debt with her.

"Doña Karen. A strong woman who had made an enormous contribution to Costa Rica. For many Costa Ricans, she may be an anonymous person, but also for lots of Costa Ricans she is a person who had left a very important and precious legacy. I personally had the honor of meeting her and we shared our life adventures. She left me speechless with all her many trips to Costa Rica, and in her, a saw a person who loved our country a lot. She never wanted to take anything back. All the contrary. She was trying to opened doors and opportunities for many people here.
The best of Doña Karen was her determination to convince the engineers from the ICE, the Costa Rican electricity company, to create a base or a center to monitor the seismic activity and they, being men, were surprised with the knowledge of Doña Karen. After several visits and nice and serious discussions they started listened to her and finally her dream came true. This was not an easy process but with her determination, love and support, she became somehow a close friend to many of us. Doña Karen with her patience was able to connect with many Costa Ricans and with time was able to opened the doors of dialog and understanding that we humans need.

Doña Karen also helped and supported many Costa Rican at different levels. She opened the doors of opportunities for many of us and always had a kind word to encourage the new professional to grow and go further in life personally and professionally.

Each of us who met her treasured in our hearts the privilege of just crossing some words with her. I always remember her loud and genuine laugh.

Aside the professional dimension, Doña Karen had a passion to collect art, precious and artistic things from all over the word, but also had a humble heart and admired and collected simple handmade crafts made from ordinary people like the famous carved Jicaras. Gourd bowls. The same way she recognized and extraordinary piece of art, she was able to give lots of credits to our indigenous people. What an incredible person.
Doña Karen protected many people and embraced many dreams. Her own dreams and the dreams of others. She was a kind a generous person and gave our country and its people a lot.

On behalf of many Costa Ricans I would like to express my gratitude to Doña Karen. Now we know that dreams are possible.

Good bye Doña Karen. People like you made the daily struggle of life worthwhile…. Your legacy would be always appreciated. I just hope that someone from my country took the time to say thank you to your person.

With love and gratitude!

Jose Martínez Cruz

Jose Martínez Cruz
Internship Coordinator
Office: (506) 2221-9984
Cell Phone: (506) 8867-6526
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America
CIME
www.cimecr.org

In Spanish:
Doña Karen. Una mujer que ha hecho una contribución enorme a Costa Rica. Para muchos es una persona anónima, pero para un gran grupo de personas sabemos que ella ha dejado un legado invaluable al país. Tuve el honor de conocerla y compartir con ella muchas de sus increíbles historias y epopeyas. Aún recuerdo cuando ella contaba que hace muchos años, sostenía discusiones candentes con grandes ingenieros de Costa Rica que parecían que no tenían idea de lo que ella quería implementar en el país, pero luego de repetidas visitas al país se fue ganando el reconocimiento, hasta que ella logró con esfuerzo propio abrir las puertas del entendimiento y el diálogo que tanta falta hace en las relaciones humanas. Doña Karen también ayudó a muchas personas en muchos sentidos y en varios niveles. Cada uno y una de nosotros y nosotras, quienes tuvimos el privilegio de compartir con ella, atesoramos momentos cruciales y claves en nuestras vidas y además de algunas de sus historias y aportes.
Aparte de la dimensión científica, a ella le gustaba coleccionar jícaras y obras de arte. Amaba lo sencillo y lo sobrio. Tenía un buen ojo para las antigüedades y un gusto increíble. Doña Karen tenía muchos protegidos y protegidas, y esto porque ella era una persona generosa y siempre depositó su confianza y lealtad en muchos de nosotros.

Adiós doña Karen. Personas como usted hacen que el paso por la dimensión terrenal tenga sentido y valga la pena.

Con el cariño de siempre,

José Manuel Martínez Cruz

How you can show support

Notify Me

Get email updates whenever changes are made.

Send flowers

Consider sending flowers.

Add photos

Share their life with photo memories.

Plant trees

Honor them by planting trees in their memory.

Donate in Memory

Make a donation in memory of your loved one.

Share this page

Invite other friends and family to visit the page.

A bouquet of little pink orchids that are just blooming this Jan 2015 in our garden in Costa Rica, specially for donna Karen who visited us at home

Maria Martinez Cruz

January 15, 2015

We want to express our sincere support and sympathy to the Family and Loved Ones of Donna Karen McNally who we appreciate very much and will always be in our thoughts and hearts.

Our eternal gratitude to Donna Karen for all what we learned from her, and for her unconditional dedication and generosity toward all the OVSICORI people.

Warm Hugs from Costa Rica,
Maria and Javier Pacheco
OVSICORI-UNA

A bouquet of tiny pink orchids blooming in Jan 2015 in our garden for Karen who appreciated the beauty of nature

Maria Martinez

January 15, 2015

We want to express our sincere support and sympathy to the Family and Loved Ones of Donna Karen McNally who we appreciate very much and will always be in our thoughts and hearts. She will be always good appreciated, loved, and present by all their friends in Costa Rica.

Our eternal gratitude to Donna Karen for all what we learned from her, and for her unconditional dedication, passion and generosity toward all the OVSICORI people.

Nuestras sinceras condolencias a la familia y seres queridos de Donna Karen McNally quien sera siempre muy apreciada, querida, y recordada por todos sus amigos en Costa Rica.
Gracias eternas a ella por sus ensenanzas, gran dedicacion y generosidad para con los Ovsicorianos.

Warm Hugs from Costa Rica,
Maria and Javier Pacheco
OVSICORI-UNA

Karen McNally and Zayda Campos, Costa Rica 2013

Zayda Campos

January 15, 2015

Dear Jerry Cook. I hope that this email finds you doing well and in good spirit. It seems that I became the official translator for some of the friends of Karen. I feel honored to translate this very kind and amazing letter written by Zaida Campos Salazar, one of Karen's best friends here in Costa Rica.

I hope that you and Karen's daughters enjoy these words! First you will find next the translation of the letter to English and then the original letter written by Zayda in Spanish.

Sincerely,

Jose Martínez Cruz

To Mr. Jerry Cook and Karen's McNally's daughters.
Dear Friends. My name is Zaida Campos Salazar. I worked for almost 25 years at the National University of Costa Rica in OVSICORI. This is the acronyms for the Seismic Observatory of Costa Rica. Perhaps you are familiar with this name. My friend Karen visited this place during her numerous trips to Costa Rica. During the first years, being the secretary of OVSICORI, I wrote the mane of Karen McNally in many occasions for appointments and interviews. When she entered the place I was doing other duties and didn't have the opportunity to meet her in person. I just heard from my colleagues about Karen. Finally in 2003 I had the opportunity to meet her in person when the National University gave her a distinction promoted by Dr. Malavassi during the last period of Dr. Marino Protti as the director of the observatory. From then on, we established a close friendship. As the secretary of the observatory I helped her a lot when she was looking for an apartment to stay in the city of Heredia. She was trying very hard and I immediately wanted for her to find a safe place and we together visited several apartments until she decided for a nice one.
In 2005, I was working very close to Karen helping her with some paperwork and assessments to evaluate different processes and we together, do to many constrictions and obstacles worked hard, experienced many frustrating days and suffer and laugh together. This was the time when we became very close friends. Karen was always very concerned about the future of the observatory and was trying to re-route things and ideas to better the whole situation. She was a loving and caring person for all of us at the observatory.
Karen became a very important member of our social circle. I shared a lot with her and helped her to prepare social events for the people and her friends from OVSICORI. We together, during those social events would put the entire world upside down and then reverse the entire process with very loud laughs. Those were memorable moments. We want all of you to know that Karen was loved here and had an amazing group of friends. During that time Roberto, her tico cat, came to scene and she left him under my care. I still have Roberto with me and I'm taking good care of him. Somehow, taking care of Roberto represents for me a way to return many good things that Karen did for all of us.
In 2006, thanks to the intervention of Karen, I was able to contact some family members who were living in the United States. I told Karen that I haven't seeing my relatives for the last 15 years and she moved the world and made this possible. The word appreciation and gratitude are not enough to thank her the day when I met my relatives. I will never forget this amazing gesture.
Before the big event, she brought me books in English and was encouraging me to learn at least the basis of that intricate language.
I also remember and treasured when Karen came to Costa Rica in several occasion with her friends from the US. She would introduce me as her Costa Rican sister. I really felt honored. I also assumed her as a real sister. I learned a lot from her. I was lucky enough to visit her home in San Francisco and enjoyed her amazing hospitality. As always she was very generous and genuine.
These are few words for you, so you would receive a summary of my friendship with Karen. I hope that it is not late to express the sadness that I feel and also the immense gratitude for having such amazing friend. I highly appreciate her and we were very good friends.
Please receive my words. May you find consolation knowing others care about your loved Karen.

Sincerely,
Zaida Campos Salazar
Retired secretary of OVSICORI
Heredia, Costa Rica.

De: Zaida Campos
Fecha: martes, 13 de enero de 2015
Asunto: Karen
Para: "Zaida Campos S."

Estimado señor Jerry Cook
Estimadas hijas de doña Karen McNally

Trabaje por más de 25 años en el OVSICORI-UNA y durante los primeros años, solo escuchaba de ella por los compañeros de trabajo. La conocí personalmente cuando vino a Costa Rica en el año 2003 a recibir una distinción por parte de la Universidad Nacional, impulsada por el Dr. Eduardo Malavassi, a finales del periodo de la dirección del Dr. marino Protti. A partir de entonces mantuvimos una relación en el ámbito laboral, pero mas que todo personal. Fui tratándola y conociéndola poco a poco y colabore mucho con ella en momentos en que decidió alquilar un apartamento en Heredia, cerca del OVSICORI.

En el año 2005 y siguientes colabore con ella y con la Dirección y personal de OVSICORI-UNA en un proceso de evaluación impulsado por doña Karen. En dicho proceso ella puso mucho trabajo, ilusiones y también frustraciones, por la coyuntura de entonces. Doña Karen siempre se preocupo mucho por el OVSICORI en su conjunto y por cada grupo y por cada persona en particular. A todos nos amaba.

Después de eso, mantuvimos lazos más personales, compartí con ella muchas cosas, fuimos muchas veces de compras buscando las cosas para la decoración de su apartamento, planeamos fiestas para los compañeros del OVSICORI en su apartamento, compartimos muchos almuerzos y cenas con compañeros como Eduardo, Javier, Betty, María y otros tantos compañeros y amigos de Karen, generalmente arreglando el mundo y en particular su amado OVSICORI. Por esos tiempos apareció Roberto, su querido gato de Costa Rica, que luego dejo a mi cuidado y hasta la fecha esta conmigo.

En el año 2006 yo pude contactar y visitar a mi familia que vivía en los Estados Unidos desde hacìa quince años, gracias a su ayuda y motivación. Siempre me traía libros y discos de inglés ya que siempre me pedía que aprendiera el idioma.

Recuerdo que cuando Karen venia con sus amigas de los Estados Unidos, cuando se refería a mi decia: Mi hermana de Costa Rica. Yo me sentía muy halagada ya que yo la sentía también como una hermana. Aprendí mucho de ella. Tuve la suerte de visitar su casa en San Francisco y de disfrutar de su hospitalidad, como siempre, ella ofreciendo lo mejor de sí misma.

Este es un pequeño resumen de lo que fue mi relación con ella, tal vez no para el obituario, sino para contarles y lo que Karen significó para mi y cuanto la aprecie.

Reciban mis condolencias por la pérdida de una persona tan especial. La Universidad Nacional y El OVSICORI también pierde a la fundadora de su red sismografica, a la científica insigne, a la amiga de siempre, Karen McNally

Un abrazo fraterno

Zaida Campos Salazar
Secretaria retirada
OVSICORI-UNA

Karen Holland

January 15, 2015

Kim, Meredith, and family....I'm so sorry for your loss. Your mom was a great role model. I remember her from many years ago when "us girls" were all growing up together.

She will be missed.

January 15, 2015

All who knew Dr. Karen Cook McNally aka:Mom were blessed. She was a head of her time, and I was so fortunate to have her as my mother. She exposed us to the possibilities open to us as women, and opened our eyes to the beauty around us through art, science, nature, friendships, etc.
I will miss her dearly and she has left a void that only the sweet memories will fill. There is no one like her.
~ L. Meredith McNally Hurley

Charlotte Melson

January 14, 2015

I will miss my beloved cousin. We were more like Sisters all our lives. Love and blessings to all the family.

Wars Hollesen

January 14, 2015

I want to wish condolances to the entire Cook and Mcnally family I went all through school with her from Clovis Elementary and Clovis High School. Her Father Einer and my Father served on the school board for over 20 years together may she Rest in Peace will always remember her.

Ronnie Quintero

January 13, 2015

Karen was a good friend and excellent person, last time she was in Costa Rica we spent it working. She never stop working and helping people learn. I am very grateful for her friendship and teaching.

Holly Eissler Given, Ph.D.

January 12, 2015

I was fortunate to become close with Karen during her time at the California Institute of Technology when I arrived there for graduate school in 1979. A multi-dimensional, complex, and exotic person, Karen stood out in what felt like a flat and somewhat impersonal environment. Karen touched many people around the world through her work and personal warmth. She was brave, outspoken, and full of life; she was dedicated to UC and to increasing the public understanding of science; she was ahead of her time. I am forever grateful for Karen's friendship during a critical time in my development as a scientist. All my sympathies to Kim and Meredith and all of Karen's family.

January 11, 2015

I have such fond memories of Jean and her entire family...jean's sister, Karen, was such a beautiful girl. My condolences, Gwen Guinn

January 9, 2015

What a great honor to have had Karen represent our class at Clovis High School. Her thoughts and brilliance have been outstanding and will be a huge dent in our roster. Peace to her family which she loved dearly.

Mariann Klomp
Fresno, CA

Showing 1 - 15 of 15 results