All:

My knowledge of Kathy's life is imperfect and incomplete.  Here is a draft 
of a memorial account for Kathy.  Please feel free to send me additions, 
corrections, and general edits.

Many thanks.

sam

                              Kathy Klimkiewicz
1943 - 2008


Almost every bird bander in North America is aware that much of Kathy?s 
adult life was devoted to birds and particularly to the banding of birds. 
For 35 years Kathy was one of the USGS Bird Banding Laboratories? 
biologists and through her correspondence and telephone calls banders were 
encourage and, in perhaps her greater role, called onto the carpet for 
forms not submitted, improper age and sex codes, questionable 
identifications, poor handwriting, and any general lack of integrity in 
banding record keeping.  As a teenager I was one of several of Kathy?s 
young banding protégées and can attest to her demand for neat handwriting, 
careful data collection, organization, and the penalties for failure to 
perform. 

Few, however, know that Kathy came to be a government biologist more 
through passion than a traditional science career.  While obtaining a 
Masters at Radford College in 1965 she took an ornithology course by Dr. 
Donald Messersmith who propelled her into the serious study of birds and 
by 1966 she had obtained her Master Banding Permit.  By the end of her 
active banding career she and her subpermitees (at least 13) had banded 
over 100,000 individuals of 171 species.  After graduating, Kathy moved to 
the Washington D.C. area and began teaching in the public schools.  During 
the summers she would volunteer at the Bird Banding Lab and in 1973 she 
began working full time for the Lab. 

During her time at the Bird Banding Laboratory she was also active in the 
local birding community, taking young birders (like me) bird watching and 
actively participating in the Maryland Ornithological Society.  She was 
active in all of the early bird atlas projects, Christmas Bird Counts, and 
regional bird projects.  While her activities became more circumscribed as 
her health deteriorated, she ran Breeding Bird Survey routes, despite her 
lack of mobility, until the year of her death; running 103 different 
surveys across 11 different routes.

Particularly early in her career Kathy was very active in Eastern Bird 
Banding and Inland Bird Banding Associations, attending meetings and 
working on various collaborative projects.  While not a requirement of her 
position, she managed to produce or coauthor 28 scientific publications. 
North American bird banders all knew Kathy.  She and a few of the other 
biologists, rather than the 4 Lab directors she worked under, were the 
persons who banders corresponded with and became the face of the program. 
Her impacts reached every bander and her passing will affect banders and 
the Bird Banding Laboratory for years to come.  Because of Kathy?s 
generosity several of us have gone on to become biologists (with very neat 
handwriting) in our own right and are now passing on similar lessons. 


- Sam Droege
P Bees are not optional.