Update: Faculty & Staff
In Memoriam: Karen Pettitt, 1956-2009
Karen Pettitt, wife of science teacher Reggie Pettitt and former staffer in the school store, lost a long and valiant battle with cancer last August. The memory of her courage, grace, and warmth will linger.
Her family was her life: “What a great life I have lived.”
W
HAT A GREAT LIFE
I have lived," she frequently told friends
and family. Karen Pettitt was the mother of three wonderful
children—Adam Leslie Pettitt, Tyson Rudolph Perz Pettitt,
and Betsey Ann Pettitt. Her family was her life. She had them involved in church and sports programs like hockey, soccer, lacrosse, nordic skiing, field hockey, cycling, crew, and golf. Karen seldom missed an opportunity to be at a contest to cheer on their teams. One of her favorite events each year was The Prouty day in Hanover, NH, a walk/run or ride by individuals and teams like the Holderness Bull Riders—which she captained in recent years—to raise money for cancer research at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. It was "her special day" because it meant that cures for cancer like hers might be found sooner. Her diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2002 began the seven-year fight she waged to beat the disease. That battle was conducted with clear resolve and a cheery outlook. She died on Saturday, August 15, the seventeenth anniversary of her marriage to husband, Reggie.
Karen, left, appeared at the Prouty Run last summer with teachers Frank and Susie Cirone and their children.
A Wreath for Karen Chaplain Rich Weymouth ’70 offered this eulogy for Karen at her memorial service this summer.
S
T.
PAUL
WROTE IN
his letter to the Philippians:
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
when they met. Their love for
heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Karen
each other
Pettitt’s prize is to live in the presence of a
embraced
loving God and the thoughts I offer now might
Reggie’s son
be described as a symbolic verbal wreath—the ancient
Adam, Karen’s
prize of ancient competitors to symbolize, in green, the
son Tyson, and brought forth Betsy, our school classmate.
Both she and Reggie had lost a former spouse when they met. Their love for each other embraced Reggie’s son Adam, Karen’s son Tyson, and brought forth Betsey, our school classmate.
glory that never
Karen’s cancer arrived in the midst of the school years—
fades.
of Reggie as our colleague, and of Adam, Tyson, and
“I press on,” Paul wrote, “forgetting what lies behind.” Karen, without
Holderness School Today
now, Betsey, as Holderness School kids. To Karen’s eternal credit, she lived with cancer, she never succumbed to it. She pressed on with care. As a daughter and as a son, she and Reggie cared for ailing fathers a number of years back—one with cancer, the
a doubt, pressed
other dealing with by-pass surgery. And she managed to
on. Both she and
care for home and family through and beyond the illness-
Reggie had lost a
es of her own.
former spouse
30
Karen with her daughter Betsey in 1993.
Karen had a no-nonsense approach to her life. She