Kathleen Ann Burke

July 9, 1946 - June 30, 2013
Kathleen Ann Burke, scientist, wife, mother, good neighbor, hiker, soccer fan and Dodger fan, died Sunday, June 30th. Kathy was born to John and Gertrude Burke on July 9th, 1946, in Newark, New Jersey. She graduated from Douglas College and received her Master of Science from Penn State. After graduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, she moved to Los Angeles, where she was employed by UCLA for 15 years. She switched sides to work for USC until her retirement in 2011. As a microbiologist, she specialized in researching gene therapy, and managed two labs. Her last project focused on AIDS research. Kathy was a long-time member of the Sierra Club, and loved to camp in the mountains, along the Central Coast of California and in the desert. She met her husband on a backpack trip to Paradise Valley, in Sequoia National Park. In recent years, Kathy became an aficionado of mule pack trips into the higher reaches of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Her hikes to the top of Griffith Park were a weekly ritual with a group of her good friends. A soccer fan since her daughters began playing the game, she was also the quintessential Dodger fan. Although ill, she attended her last game, which the Dodgers won, three weeks before her death. She is survived by her husband, Dave Wyman, her daughters, Rebecca Gold and Nora Wyman, her son-in-law, Lee Gold, and granddaughter Willa Belle Gold. She is also survived by her siblings, Jackie Ginty, Patricia Burke Valdes, Barbara Wroblewski, and John Burke.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations go to the Lung Cancer Alliance.