Kathleen Riordan Speeth, a woman of brilliant intellect, searching curiosity, and keen compassion, passed away on November 27, 2025. Her devoted partner of more than 30 years, Woody Lomas, was at her side.
With insight, skill, flair, and a thoughtful wariness of convention, Kathy Speeth helped many people in enduring ways, profoundly changing their lives for the better. She was a charismatic pacesetter who, as time passed, increasingly chose to lead a quiet, introspective existence. An insatiable learner, she delved into philosophy, religion, languages, science, and medicine. She maintained a personal library of more than 10,000 volumes. In her later years she was working on a book about Spinoza. Her aim was always to fathom the human psyche and understand the soul's journey.
Born in New York City on February 12, 1937 to John and Mavis Riordan, then students of George Gurdjieff, Kathy learned at his knee and later studied with his successor, Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann. Kathy’s mother told her that upon seeing her as a child, Gurdjieff turned to Mme. de Salzmann and said, “She has possibilities.”
Indeed she did -- and she realized them. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College in 1959, then went on to get her Master of Arts and PhD in psychology from Columbia University. Her primary interest was experimental psychology, and she spent a year at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey investigating the memory technique known as paired associate learning. In 1976 she published The Gurdjieff Work, considered a classic, followed in 1980 by Gurdjieff, Seeker of Truth and in 1982, with Daniel Goleman, Essential Psychotherapies.
The exploration of universal truths was at the core of her being. A move to Berkeley, California in the early 1970s brought her into contact with Claudio Naranjo, with whom she helped establish the SAT (Seekers After Truth) Institute, which taught the theory and practice of a variety of spiritual approaches. This work informed her private psychology practice as well as the teaching she did at colleges and universities, notably at The California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park, where from 1978 to 1981 she was a core faculty member.
Kathy loved music and flowers. Wherever she lived she cultivated two gardens, one of resplendent roses, another of loving friends.
Her daughter Debby predeceased her. She is survived by her daughter Lauren and her partner Woody Lomas.
With insight, skill, flair, and a thoughtful wariness of convention, Kathy Speeth helped many people in enduring ways, profoundly changing their lives for the better. She was a charismatic pacesetter who, as time passed, increasingly chose to lead a quiet, introspective existence. An insatiable learner, she delved into philosophy, religion, languages, science, and medicine. She maintained a personal library of more than 10,000 volumes. In her later years she was working on a book about Spinoza. Her aim was always to fathom the human psyche and understand the soul's journey.
Born in New York City on February 12, 1937 to John and Mavis Riordan, then students of George Gurdjieff, Kathy learned at his knee and later studied with his successor, Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann. Kathy’s mother told her that upon seeing her as a child, Gurdjieff turned to Mme. de Salzmann and said, “She has possibilities.”
Indeed she did -- and she realized them. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College in 1959, then went on to get her Master of Arts and PhD in psychology from Columbia University. Her primary interest was experimental psychology, and she spent a year at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey investigating the memory technique known as paired associate learning. In 1976 she published The Gurdjieff Work, considered a classic, followed in 1980 by Gurdjieff, Seeker of Truth and in 1982, with Daniel Goleman, Essential Psychotherapies.
The exploration of universal truths was at the core of her being. A move to Berkeley, California in the early 1970s brought her into contact with Claudio Naranjo, with whom she helped establish the SAT (Seekers After Truth) Institute, which taught the theory and practice of a variety of spiritual approaches. This work informed her private psychology practice as well as the teaching she did at colleges and universities, notably at The California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park, where from 1978 to 1981 she was a core faculty member.
Kathy loved music and flowers. Wherever she lived she cultivated two gardens, one of resplendent roses, another of loving friends.
Her daughter Debby predeceased her. She is survived by her daughter Lauren and her partner Woody Lomas.
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