Deaths and Obituaries

Colleen Pattridge of Allenspark, a student at the School through the spring 2000 semester, died in May.

Kay Rock

Katherine Ficklin “Kay” Rock, a program specialist in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication with roots in community journalism and who was well-known to students for decades, died April 9 at St. Peter's Hospital in Helena, Mont. A longtime resident of Boulder, she and her husband, Rupert (“Bud”) moved to Helena in July 2003 to be near her son, Christopher, and his family. She was 84.

Rock went to work for the CU admissions office in 1970 and then moved to the College of Arts and Sciences as an academic adviser. In 1978, Rock started working as the dean's administrative assistant at what was then the School of Journalism. Because of her strong advising background, she was soon asked to work in that capacity at the School.

She also coordinated graduation requirements and scholarships, but faculty and staff also benefited from her advice.

“As a junior faculty member, I never missed an opportunity to drop by Kay's office on Friday mornings for a pep talk and a doughnut,” Associate Professor Jan Whitt said. “When the School was in Macky Auditorium, Kay provided doughnuts for all the advisees who came by during the last class day each week, and she was warm and generous with them all.

“It's impossible for me to say how much I miss Kay. On one particularly bleak Friday spring semester, I sent her a note to say that she was on my mind and that I wished I could stop by her office and take up where we left off,” Whitt said. “She brightened my life. She was an ally and a trusted friend.”

Rock was instrumental in the training of Jeanne Brown (MA '89), who became her successor at the School.

“Kay was my introduction to academic advising. As a graduate student working with her, I learned so much about working with students outside the classroom. She was very committed to the students' welfare and always knowledgeable about the University,” Brown said.

“I still find myself telling them things I heard from Kay 15 years ago.”

Assistant Dean Steve Jones also said he got to appreciate Rock's dedication from more than one perspective.

“ I worked with Kay from 1981 through her retirement in 2000. At first I was advising students and picking up hints from her along the way. Then in 1987 with the School's organizational change, Kay reported to me. I can't say that Kay worked for me because she only worked for the students and those who knew her knew how independent she was,” he said.

“As far as the students are concerned, they were important to her, whether they were trying to get into the School, compete for scholarships, or graduate.”

He said the respect and love students had for her recently became evident.

“We decided to do some School housecleaning of old student records. We had nearly five decades to go through. Many of the records of the '70s, '80s and '90s had typewritten or handwritten notes to students from Kay and letters back to her.

“She was a master of the typewriter and a master with words and maintained her contact with those students. Her contributions to the School as our program specialist helped build the foundation for where we are today and will not be forgotten.”

Rock earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Missouri, then she became owner, editor and publisher of The DeKalb County

Herald, in her hometown of Maysville, Mo., which her father had owned and operated. He taught her how to run a Linotype machine when she was 10.

She said that she didn't always want to be in journalism.

“I wanted to be in the theater,” she said in a 1996 Bylines story. “But I was expected to run the newspaper.”

In 1942, at the urging of a close cousin, she moved to Washington, D.C. Rock worked for McGraw-Hill and Business Week as an editor. “Since they didn't let women on the air at that time, that was as close as I could come to the theater,” she recalled. “They let me do everything that was written.”

While in Washington she met Bud Rock. They married in 1944.

After spending some time in Seattle and selling the newspaper in Missouri, they moved to Colorado.

“I always wanted to live in Colorado and the West,” she said.

The couple moved west, first to Estes Park then to Laramie, Wyo., where Rupert Rock attended the University of Wyoming, and finally to Boulder.

After the youngest of their three children finished high school in 1969, Rock began working at CU. She retired in 2000 at the age of 81 after 30 years of service to the University and 22 to the School.

Rock was a member of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in Boulder, the P.E.O. sisterhood, and the Colorado Press Association.

She was passionate about her family, her pets, her work, golf, politics, the Rocky Mountains and Denver Broncos football.

She is survived by her husband; her sons, Paul Rock of Tulsa, Okla., and Christopher Rock of Helena, Mont.; her daughter, CiCi Prentice of Durango, and her two grandchildren, Cory and Sheila Prentice, of Durango.

Memorial gifts in her name may be sent to P.E.O. Educational Loan Fund, 3700 Grand Ave., Des Moines, IA 50312-2899.