Alzheimer’s. To the very end, Judy displayed her beautiful smile and
great love for family and friends. She was a thoughtful, caring lady, and
a classic beauty inside and out. She will be dearly missed by all who
knew her.
She was born on March 10, 1942 in Bluefield, West Virginia to Willard
and Roberta Smith. She was the eldest of their four children, and was
predeceased by her parents and her brother Bill. She is survived by Bob,
her husband of 40 years, her son Brad Fowlkes, her brother Doug (Sally)
and sister Roberta Clare.
Judy lived in more than a dozen cities before graduating from high
school, an occupational hazard when your father is a regional sales manager
for Procter and Gamble. As a result, she and her siblings were constantly
thrown into new peer groups in unfamiliar territory. The first day
of school was always absolute misery, but she quickly learned you only
had one tough day, and then everything went back to normal as new
friends were quickly found. These childhood experiences strengthened
her flexibility, fearlessness, ambition, and sense of adventure for the rest
of her life.
Judy spent two years at Vanderbilt University in the early ‘60s majoring
in philosophy and social sciences before marrying a Navy pilot and
moving overseas to Japan and Philippines. After his tour of duty ended,
she returned to the states, settling in Chicago. She returned to college
earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master degree in administration
and organizational behavior. Afterwards, she was on the faculty
teaching graduate level courses in administration. She then went to work
for the American Hospital Association where she became the director of
the Hospital Engineering Society. During Judy’s time with the AHA,
she was divorced and then met Bob who was a member of the Hospital
Engineering Society board of directors representing the mountain west
region. After moving to Denver, Judy and Bob were married in 1981.
After moving to yet another new city, Judy quickly started finding her
niche in Colorado by joining a new company called Mountain States
Shared Services as the Director of Marketing. In 1983 she was recruited
to join the Visiting Nurse Association as the Private Duty Business Manager,
then three years later promoted to the Chief Financial Officer position
which she held for only one year before being promoted again as the
President/Chief Executive Officer.
When Judy became the CFO the VNA was essentially bankrupt. They
were losing $1 million a year for the previous two years as the result of
Medicare cost cutting, and the split from the City and County of Denver
which had provided some shared administrative services and coverage
for sizable annual losses. It was a huge challenge to save this very important
community asset. However, Judy had just the right level of intelligence,
self confidence, financial acumen, management skills, personality,
ambition, work ethic, and a fearless approach to problem solving to
make it happen.
When Judy accepted the chief executive position in 1987 the organization
had $6 million in annual revenues and when she retired in 2004 she
had grown the VNA to $33 million in annual revenues. Additionally
they owned their own building, and had over $1 million in the bank. At
that time, the organization was the largest home care agency in the State
of Colorado with 850 staff, 600 on-call personnel making 80,000 visits
in the certified and private duty programs, $1.7 million in equipment
sales, and had installed a retirement plan for the employees. These are
only just a few things this remarkable woman accomplished. She will
always be remembered for her strength and vision which ensured the
company to survive and thrive.
Also during her tenure at the VNA, Judy was active in the VNA’s of
America, the national association of VNA’s across the states, of which
are many, to obtain the best business practices. As a VNAA member she
was elected to their board and was also elected president. In that role,
she was called upon on occasion to testify before Congress.
After her retirement from the VNA, Judy continued to contribute to the
community by serving as the Treasurer of the Ridge View Academy
School Board for five years. RVA is a Denver Public Schools Charter
School serving adjudicated youth in the Colorado Department of Human
Services.
Judy had a loving, extended family with Bob, and will be fondly remembered
by her stepdaughter Lori (Scott) Underwood, stepson Mike
(Sherry) Sutherland. Judy will also be deeply missed by her nieces,
nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was predeceased
by her stepdaughter Linda Sutherland. She was very dedicated to her
family and used her extensive organizational skills for large reunions
and holiday gatherings.
To know Judy was to love and admire her. She was fabulous combination
of beauty, intelligence and elegance – an inspiration to those who
were fortunate enough to have known her. She loved flower gardening,
traveling the world, reading, playing bridge, fly fishing, and gathering
with friends and family.
Celebration of Life to be held on Aug 21 at 3:00 pm at Olinger Chapel
Hill Chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests memorial
donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association or The Denver Hospice
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