Katherine Ann Neldner's Obituary
Dr. Katherine Ann Neldner died with friends and family nearby in the early hours of August 31, 2023. She was 71, and had faced a four-year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was the eldest daughter of Dr. Kenneth Neldner and Lillian Neldner (nee Hafner) of Lewiston, Minnesota. Although she lived in California for over forty years, Kathy grew up in Boulder, Colorado with her sisters Marabeth Cooper and Linda Sheridan. She would go on to attend college at University of Colorado-Boulder, where she met her ex-husband, Tom Gadek, and then on to medical school at the University of Colorado-Denver Medical Campus before moving to the Bay Area to complete her medical residency with a specialization in infectious disease. She proudly kept her maiden name after marriage and took great delight in telling telemarketers who called for a “Mrs. Gadek” that they had in fact reached Dr. Neldner. Her two daughters, Emily and Kate Gadek, were both born in the Bay Area and grew up in Oakland.
Kathy, or Dr. Mom, as her daughters and their friends affectionately called her, spent her career as a physician at Kaiser Permanente, specializing in infectious diseases and rising to become Chief of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control at Kaiser Walnut Creek. She was often the physician her colleagues turned to with difficult cases that didn’t seem to have an answer. Her colleagues also remember her as a great friend, as well as her unique one of a kind jewelry.
Her time as an infectious disease specialist coincided with the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Bay Area. Kathy treated some of the earliest known HIV patients in Contra Costa County, and went on to treat hundreds more at Kaiser’s Martinez HIV Consultation Clinic. She spoke often of the heartbreak in watching early patients die without effective treatment, and her relief and pride in seeing the disease turn from a death sentence into a chronic but manageable condition with the help of physicians and pharmaceuticals over the course of her career. And, as she often reminded people, she would have been in charge of the response to a second global pandemic - COVID-19 - if she hadn’t retired a few years back.
Kathy had an appreciation for the beauty of nature and traveled back to Colorado frequently to visit family, friends, and mountains. In recent years, she traveled to Ireland, Japan, Mexico, and the American Southwest with friends and family, and dreamed of traveling to many more places in retirement. She was a voracious reader, often found with her face tucked in a book long into the night after work and on weekends. She was a skilled gardener with large collections of orchids and succulents at her home in the Oakland Hills. And as anyone who knew her can say, she loved animals - particularly her dogs Suzy, Bunni, and Potato.
The last few years of her life were difficult ones due to the nature of her disease, but she was fortunate to have dedicated friends, family, and caregivers who brought her an endless supply of milkshakes and cookies. Her daughters Emily and Kate would particularly like to acknowledge Kathy’s sister Beth Cooper, “outlaws” Tom Gadek, Mary Gadek Bancroft and Joe Gadek, neighbors Caroline Krewson and Jim and Winnie Szetzo, Kaiser colleagues and friends Marianne Bond and Dr. James Lee, and most especially her lifelong friends Paige Garnett, Joanna Chinen, Jean Florman, Dicky Allison, Beth Leuck and Mollie Messimer for their care and support of Kathy since her diagnosis.
In Kathy’s honor, please always wash your hands and sneeze into your elbow. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to The Alzheimer’s Association (https://www.alz.org/), The Family Caregiver Alliance (https://www.caregiver.org/), or the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (https://www.sfaf.org/).
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