Karen Meyer Obituary

Karen Marie Meyer (née Alcorn), 45, of Berkeley, California died Wednesday, August 14, 2013 after battling brain cancer. Karen was born in Elk Grove Village, IL on June 25, 1968 to Nancy McCullough and Gehrig Alcorn. She grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was valedictorian of Palmer High School class of 1986, and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1991 with a degree in physical education/kinesiology. On August 15, 1998, Karen married Richard Theodore Meyer. She gave birth to their daughter, Erica Joy, on July 24, 2001; and to their son, Joshua Theodore, on May 29, 2004. With Dr. Isabel Hawkins and in partnership with NASA, Karen co-founded and served as manager of the Sun-Earth Connection Education effort; and later, as the project manager for the Energy from the Sun project at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. Most recently, Karen worked as an education project manager for MAVEN, the spacecraft satellite slated to arrive on Mars in November, 2013. Karen was a founding member of Church Without Walls, Berkeley and a devoted parent volunteer at Rosa Parks Elementary School. Karen is survived by her husband and children, her parents, and by her siblings: Tony Alcorn, Leah Storey, Angelique Gardner and Eric Alcorn. Karen's memorial service will be held at 1:00pm on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana Street in Berkeley, California. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Rosa Parks Elementary School. Make an online gift at http://www.rosaparkselementary.org/ or send a check to Rosa Parks PTA, 920 Allston Way, Berkeley, 94710 with "Karen Meyer memorial fund" in the memo line.