Karen Helen Krahn Stodola

1958 - 2023

Karen Helen Krahn Stodola passed away on September 13, 2023.

Karen was born on April 24, 1958, to Edgar and Dorothee Krahn. She grew up in Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland.

Karen played violin from a young age, initially in youth orchestras. She attended the University of Maryland, from which she graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Music degree. She maintained her love of music throughout her life, playing in quartets, chamber groups, orchestras, and bluegrass bands.

After working as a professional musician, she became a firefighter, rising in the ranks to become the first female lieutenant in the Montgomery County, Maryland Fire Department. While a firefighter, she participated in the Firefighter Combat Challenge.

Karen attended the Physician Assistant program at Duke University, graduating in 2000.

She held several different PA positions over the course of her life, including working with underserved populations in community health clinics and for Planned Parenthood.

With a love of the outdoors and the west she moved to Colorado, where she met her husband, Ken Stodola. They were married in 2007, and they moved to the Seattle area in 2008.

She was always interested in the outdoors- hiking, camping, skiing, and mushing with her dogs.

Karen is deeply missed and survived by her husband Ken of Woodinville, Washington; her stepsons Matthew Stodola of West Seattle and Tyler Stodola (wife Pashience) of Arlington, Washington; her brother Tom Krahn (wife Diana Baxter) of Barrington, Rhode Island, and nephews Andrew and Robert Krahn, both of Boston. She was preceded in death by her parents.

A celebration of her life will be held on her birthday, April 24, 2024, at the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church at 4:30 p.m. [A Zoom link will be available.] Donations in her memory can be made to Harmony Hill Retreat Center at www.harmonyhill.org.