Kate Hopwood Payne

MAJ. KATE HOPWOOD PAYNE, U.S. AIR FORCE, RET.
(6/29/14 - 5/21/08)
ITHACA - Kate Hopwood Payne, 93, co-founder of the Ithaca-based Foundation of Light, passed away peacefully early in the morning at home on Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

Maj. Payne, along with her husband, Col. John D. Payne and Mabel DeMotte Beggs, established the Foundation of Light in the early 1970s as an ecumenical Free Church dedicated to propagating the ancient wisdom that underlies all the world's great religions. The Foundation of Light is a center for spiritual studies, research, and compassionate community-building. Maj. Payne developed a library of over 6,000 volumes on the spiritual, healing, and practical arts. With a degree in library science, Maj. Payne modified the Dewey Decimal System to suit the library's unique holdings.

She traveled widely in the 1960s to gather knowledge, seeking out leading experts in esoteric fields of study, and visiting sacred sites. She and the co-founders of the Foundation of Light brought scholars and savants from around the world to Ithaca, and nurtured an organization that spans continents, and inspires respect because of the work of the founders and those who continue to do that work.

She showed her compassion to all who came to her by introducing them to the extraordinary resources she had gathered and built, She devoted herself to freely giving instruction in the mastery and use of these tools. Her most powerful impact may have been as a teacher of others, and as a teacher of teachers. As a founder of the Foundation of Light, she was also a major benefactor.

She wrote a telegraphic autobiography: Army Brat, Army Wife, Naval Officer, Army Widow, Army Wife, Air Force Wife, Air Force Officer, Air Force Widow and Healer.

Here is the story behind the telegram:

She was born in the Army hospital at the Presidio (Army base) in San Francisco on June 29, 1914. Kate was the only child of Col. Lucius L. Hopwood (Army Medical Corps) and Audentia Ellen Hansen.

Following her education, she married an Army officer, Dale J. Kinnee, and accompanied him to the Philippines, where he was stationed in Zamboanga, shortly before WWII broke out. Being a civilian at that time, she was evacuated to her Army father's home in San Antonio, TX. She was on the last ship to leave Manila during the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. While awaiting Dale's return, World War II began with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

When the war started, she joined the Navy (Waves). When she completed her officer training at Smith College, she was ordered to report for duty at the Western Sea Frontier, ending up in a San Francisco assignment for the duration of hostilities. Her duties involved management of degaussing projects - de-magnification of Navy ships for the purpose of reducing the effectiveness of enemy radar. Degaussing remains a strategic tool in high technology (and the military) to this day. Maj. Payne was a part of its earliest high-security beginnings.

While on duty, early in the war, she learned that her husband was a prisoner of war. Officially, he became labeled as "missing in action" but it was known that he was placed with hundreds of others on a Japanese prison ship. That ship was mistakenly targeted and bombed by the US Army Air Corps, with much loss of American lives. But Dale Kinnee was not among the known casualties. His fate is officially unknown. It left Kate Hopwood Kinnee an Army widow without any closure. Kate eventually came to know, by her own sources of intelligence, that Dale did escape the prison ship before the bombing, but died in battle.

In 1946, still in San Francisco, she met and married an Army Air Corps officer, John D. Payne. This made her an Army wife once more.

It was not long before the United States passed legislation separating the Army Air Force into its own service (September 17, 1947). So, now, a Naval officer, Kate Payne was also the wife of an Air Force officer.

Kate Payne sought and received a transfer from the Navy to the Air Force Reserves. Now she was an Air Force officer. While working her way up to the rank of Major in the military, she also earned an Interior Design diploma from the NY School of Interior Design, another in professional hat making in Paris, France (later exhibiting her hat creations to the Officers’ Wives Club in Colorado Springs), studied French cooking at le Cordon Bleu and became a member of the British Society of Herbalists. She became a respected authority on herbs, nutrition and in the healing arts and was active in a variety of organizations reflecting her range of interests.

Now in the Reserves, she was free to come to Ithaca when John Payne assumed his final Air Force tour of duty, serving as Professor of Air Science in Cornell's Reserve Officer Training Corps program (ROTC), until retirement as full Colonel in 1964.

This began an entirely new and productive phase in her life as teacher/healer. These two military officers, with distinguished careers in wartime and in the cold war, seem to have turned on a dime. Throughout the remainder of the 1960s and for the rest of their lives, they devoted themselves to helping others, seeking ways to end suffering, supporting sustainability, protecting the planet, and to bringing peace to all people. Their first home was in Cayuga Heights, and it is there that the Foundation of Light was formed. They were avid golfers, and a part of the cocktail party circuit, just as they had been in the military, but had already begun their new life. They kept their friendships, but they were moving on. After the founding of the Foundation of Light, they bought a parcel from Mabel and Earle Demotte, and built a state-of-the art passive solar home adjacent to the Foundation of Light. Together, Kate and John designed this home so that half of the structure could be devoted to the purposes of the Foundation of Light. Meanwhile, Mabel DeMotte (later Beggs) donated the historical one-room schoolhouse on her property to the Foundation of Light, thus providing a center for meditation, learning, and practice. Col. John Payne died in 1992, and Kate carried on their work as teachers and healers until her full retirement from all worldly concerns.

Kate lived out her last years quietly at home surrounded by a team of wonderful caregivers and her spiritual friends who served her with utmost love and compassion - giving back what she had given them. During her final phase in this life, monks from Namgyal Monastery of Ithaca came to offer Buddhist prayers with her, and she received constant spiritual support from all who saw her.

Maj. Kate Hopwood Payne's life had changed direction when she was at the height of her powers. The warrior turned to building and maintaining a library on spirituality, healing, and practical arts. She collected and maintained a number of databases and expert systems dedicated to self-healing, self-improvement, and serving the greater good. She showed her compassion to all who came to her by introducing them to these extraordinary resources, and giving them instruction in their use.

As a founder of the Foundation of Light, she was also a major benefactor. Once the Foundation membership made a commitment to build a new community building, Kate made a commitment as well, including challenge grants that were matched by the membership. The building stands as a monument to its founders, and a service to the entire community.

Kate had many surrogate children, but no children of her own. She is survived by two cousins, David Hansen and Rose Hansen Liggett, both of Colorado. On her husband's side, she is survived by her stepdaughter, Sandra Payne Brister; and her step-nephews, Ken Payne of Washington, DC, and Philip Knowles of Lenox, MA.

A Memorial Service to celebrate her life will be held on Sunday, July 20, at 10:30 a.m., at the Foundation of Light. The service will be followed by a dish-to-pass reception. Those wishing to make donations may contribute to the Foundation of Light.