Kathryn “Kathy” Collins died peacefully at home on January 19, 2024 at the age of 69 after a courageous battle with cancer surrounded by loved ones.
Kathryn Frances Carrigan Collins was born to Lavinia Cole Carrigan and Richard Maurice Carrigan on February 8, 1954 in Evanston, Illinois. She entered the world as the fifth of what would be eight siblings in the Carrigan clan. As a child, her nickname was “little foots.” She possessed a head full of curly brown hair and her pigtails would bounce up and down. From the start, her personality was joyful and luminous.
Raised in Skokie, Illinois, Kathy graduated from St. Joan of Arc grade school, Regina Dominican High School, and St. Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Indiana), and earned graduate degrees from the University of Illinois and Seattle University.
Inspired by her deep faith, Kathy felt a fundamental calling to serve needs wherever she saw them and offered her care and professional energies to many communities, including the Archdiocese of Seattle, Sacred Heart School, Seattle University, L’Arche Noah Sealth, St. Francis House, and the Ignatian Spirituality Center. From July 2012 to June 2013, Kathy and Bill spent eleven months as volunteers with Maryknoll in Cochabamba, Bolivia and were profoundly moved by their experience there.
Kathy’s heart and mind always sought the greater good. In her time in Campus Ministry at Seattle University, she ministered to hundreds of couples through marriage preparation, led students on service-immersion trips to Belize, Ecuador, and Mexico, and drove a van full of students to Monroe weekly to visit prisoners there. While director of St. Francis House, Kathy not only oversaw the day-to-day needs of the center as it served the homeless population in Seattle, but she also created the vision for expanding St. Francis House to build 80 permanent housing units to fill the housing shortage gap in Seattle.
Kathy also was a minister within many Catholic communities in Seattle and beyond, including St. John the Evangelist, Christ Our Hope, St. Patrick, and St. Joseph Parishes. With Bill, Kathy was involved in formation programs for Deacons in the Archdiocese. She also served on and chaired the Board of the CHANNEL lay ministry formation program and the Ignatian Spirituality Center and advocated for many children as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. For over nine years, she served as a spiritual director for Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL).
Kathy possessed a robust sense of adventure. She adopted for her own life Peter Pan’s description of Never Never Land “There is no space between adventures.” Kathy relished her time in the beautiful outdoors and that led her to hiking the hills around Seattle and to summiting Mt Rainier, walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, running the Portland marathon, completing the Danskin Triathlon in Seattle as a cancer survivor, and enjoying bike rides with friends around Seattle, the San Juan Islands, southern France, in Cochabamba. She swam across many mountain lakes, sang around many campfires, rowed crew on Lake Union and explored with her friends the beauty of this planet she loved so well. Gardening was another love, struggling with Seattle’s weather to grow tomatoes and other vegetables as well as flowers.
Kathy’s motto in life is “just show up and see who needs to be loved.” Kathy was a deeply loving and joyful wife, mother, grandparent, sister, aunt, and godparent who relished the energy and joy of children and made each person feel like they were the most important person in the room. Trained as a professional librarian, she loved books and especially loved reading books to children. Sharing the books that she loved with others was also one of Kathy’s fondest connections. Her friends say that they will ever remember her smile, her laugh, and the way she truly wanted to know how they were doing. Because she stayed so positive and joyful, and was so accomplished in being present to those in her company, many others felt lifted up by her.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Lavinia Cole Carrigan and Richard Maurice Carrigan, her sister Peggy Carrigan Weems, her brothers Mike Carrigan, Sandy Carrigan, and Emmet Carrigan, and her beloved daughter, Patty Collins.
She is survived by her devoted spouse of 41 years, William “Bill” Collins, her cherished daughters Sheila Collins (Logan Reichert), and Katie Collins Geiser (Julien), her sisters Patty Carrigan Tilghman (Rich), Mary Carrigan (Paul Thieman), and brother John Carrigan (Sarah); many beloved cousins, and her grandchildren, Hazel and Patrick Reichert and Lavinia, Celina, and Zelie Geiser and sweet baby on the way, along with many adoring nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.
Visitation will be held on Friday, January 26th at 5:00pm followed by a Vigil at 6:00pm.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, January 27th at 11:00am. All services will be held at
St. Joseph Catholic Church
732 18th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to St. Francis House Seattle or L’Arche Noah Sealth.
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