Karla Tomfohrde

Karla May Tomfohrde was born on July 20, 1946 in Knoxville, TN to Karl Martin Tomfohrde and Gertrude Maylott Tomfohrde and passed away November 15, 2024 in Rocklin, CA.

Karla was born in Knoxville, TN while her father Karl was working for the Tennessee Valley Authority. She was raised in Sandy Springs, GA, an Atlanta suburb when her parents relocated for work. She graduated from The Lovett School, a private K-12 independent school. She got her Bachelors of Science from Florida State University and started her career in Microbiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She went on to get her Masters degree at Georgia State University.

She was recruited from the CDC in Atlanta, GA by Jerry Kuliga to work in the microbiology industry, initially working for API in Los Angeles and then moving to the corporate offices in Long Island, NY. Karla followed Jerry to a start-up company in the early 1980's called MicroScan where she held various positions including Technical Services, Director of Development, and Vice President of Regulatory and Quality Assurance, initially in New Jersey and then in the late 1980's, in Sacramento, CA. She left MicroScan in the mid 1990's and moved to Virginia to work for MRL (which later became Eurofins) where she helped establish a global antimicrobial resistance surveillance network. She returned to the Sacramento area with Eurofins, settled in Lincoln Hills and retired from Eurofins in 2011.

Karla was a world recognized expert in bacterial identification and antimicrobial resistance. She conducted numerous seminars and educational programs globally to increase awareness of this significant public health threat and the testing methods to monitor emergence of antimicrobial resistance. She was an active contributor to the international standards group Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).

Karla enjoyed many hobbies. She was a worldwide traveler for business and pleasure having visited all 7 continents! Her friends and colleagues enjoyed creating memories with Karla that will last forever. Her favorite pleasure trips were seeing animals in their natural habitat on African Safaris, seeing polar bears in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic. She made friends wherever she went! Karla was an accomplished needle pointer where she enjoyed spending time with her fellow artisans and created numerous canvases that decorated her home. Karla loved anything connected with Disney, including visiting Disney World and Disneyland, watching Disney movies, and decorating areas of her home with a Disney theme. She found joy in reading. She was a huge sports fan including golf, tennis, football, basketball and baseball attending in person or watching on TV. Her favorite teams included the Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco 49ers. She was an alumna and avid fan of anything related to Florida State University Seminoles.

Karla will be deeply missed by those who loved her and whose lives she touched. Her many friends, who were her extended family, included the Van Pelts (Linda, Cliff, Tyler, Bryan), Sharon Cullen, Judy Johnston, Bettina Tabke, Pam Murcell, and many more.

Karla was an only child and was preceded in death by her parents in Atlanta, GA. She was interred alongside her parents at Holy Innocent's Church in Sandy Springs, GA.

A celebration of life will be held in Lincoln Hills, CA on February 8, 2025.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Alzheimer's Association at https://www.alz.org/.