Denise Winsky

1952 - 2024

Denise "Dee" Lynne Winsky (née Curtin), PhD, was born on February 6, 1952, to her beloved parents Marietta and Joe in Kansas City, MO. She attended St. Pius X Catholic High School in Kansas City, where everyone reminded her that her two older sisters, Mary Jo Curtin and Sissy Justice, were super funny and super popular. Dee turned out similarly and also began to show signs that she was one heck of a smart cookie.

By 1982, she had moved to Tucson, Arizona, with her baby Laura in tow and was expecting her son Jason. Upon arriving in the Old Pueblo, she saw her first sunset on the mountains and declared that this was where she would raise her family and never move again.

Later, as a single mom with two small children in tow, she decided to become a University of Arizona Wildcat and pursue her PhD. She often brought her children along to night classes, where they did their own homework in little study carrels right alongside her.

Her reputation as a superhero mom, as a tutor to now very famous members of the University of Arizona basketball team, and as a devoted student meant that she raised two Wildcats for life. Dr. Dee went on to become a career child psychologist, an expert in post-traumatic stress disorder, a respite for military families reuniting after war in southern Arizona, and a subject matter expert on the psychological and emotional abuse of children for child protective services and later the Department of Child Services. For over 30 years, she dedicated her expertise to this work. As president of the Southern Arizona Psychological Association, she provided much-needed mentorship to young psychologists. Laura and Jason truly do not know how many children's and families' lives she touched over her career, but they certainly know she instilled in them the absolute desire and mandate to serve the community themselves.

Dee was adorable and wicked Irish funny, small but mighty, with cold hands and a warm heart, as she would say. She was a fierce advocate for her community and family until her very last moments. She was her grandson's (Little Man's) very best friend and was in route to pick him up from school, as she did every Friday, when cancer suddenly and finally had its last say.

Dee is preceded in death by her parents and her dear sister Sissy. She is survived by her incredible sister Mary Jo, daughter Laura Conover, son Jason Winsky, and their beautiful and adoring families. A special note is made here for Aubrey Conover, husband to Laura, whom Dee often acknowledged with a smirky little smile as her actual favorite child.

Dee was absolutely adamant, out loud on many occasions and also in writing in many separate documents as it turns out, that there would be no public service. This is her family's way of overriding her just a tiny degree on the year mark of her passing. In her honor, she would want you to read to a child. You can do this easily by contacting Literacy Connects or your local library. Or you could consider becoming a Big Sister or Big Brother, because they REALLY need you. Or you could do the ultimate, which Dee believed in so very deeply: become a CASA, a Court Appointed Special Advocate.

With all the love in Dee's huge heart within her tiny body, we know she joins the Winsky and Conover families in thanking the community for the outpouring of love extended to all of us.