(pictured: Dana Clark, Kay and Andrea Durbin on a visit to Tacoma where we were touring Kay’s beautiful garden)
Kay was one of the first people I met in Washington, DC when she was at Bank Information Center. As a young campaigner, she taught me a lot about how to track the World Bank’s investments, how to support communities impacted by the Bank’s loans and how to avoid the end run with the endless charts and graphs from the bankers. Most importantly, she shared her passion for justice and her unflappable fierceness for justice and unwillingness to tolerate foolishness and platitudes. We worked together meeting with Bank officials, protesting in the streets (“good gawd, Mr. Wolfensohn, how do you sleep at night” was one of our favorite signs we saw) and organizing with and to support communities around the world.
We connected on our shared passion for justice, and also because we were both from the Pacific Northwest. After many years working together, I was thrilled when she figured out her pathway back to the Northwest and to a great job at the Harder Foundation. I followed her back to the PNW several years later when I moved to Portland, Oregon to become the executive director at a statewide environmental organization. We were lucky to find our way back to working together. I remember phone calls, lunches and drinks together where we would swap stories and so much laughter.
I am lucky to have had Kay Treakle in my life and to have had the chance to work with such a great group of colleagues who became even better friends (Kay, David Hunter, Dana Clark and many others).
Kay was special in so many ways, and touched so many lives. I am grateful that Kay touched my life and I hold her in my heart.