Karen Krouse Dye

Karen Krouse Dye, longtime Columbia, MD resident, passed away May 11, 2023 at the age of 78. Karen is survived by her husband of 55 years, John; children: Jane Nelson of Anchorage, AK; William Dye of New York City, NY; Virginia Zimmerman (Stefan) of Ellicott CIty, MD; her adored grandchildren who knew her as Oma: Jack, Owen, Joey, and Olivia; her siblings Nancy Sperry (Bill), Neal Krouse, Gretchen Johnston, and Steven Krouse as well as many extended family members who will miss her dearly. She was preceded in death by her parents, Leonard and Olive Krouse and her grandson, Nicholas.

Karen was born on October 28, 1944 in Massachusetts. She grew up in Springfield, PA (Delaware County) and graduated in 1962 from Springfield High School. Following high school, she attended the Pennsylvania State University, which was also the alma mater of her parents. Karen was a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma and the inaugural intercollegiate field hockey and lacrosse teams, a true pioneer for women’s athletics. While at Penn State, she met her husband, John, on a European trip with the PSU chapel choir. In 1966, Karen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.

Karen and John married on September 9, 1967 and moved to the Bowie, MD area soon after. In 1971, they began their family when Jane was born, followed by Bill (1973) and Ginny (1978). They moved to Long Reach in Columbia, MD in 1972 and then to Owen Brown in 1977, where they remained in their family home until this day. The family spent three years in Stuttgart, Germany in the mid-80s, while John worked at Patch military base. Prior to having children, Karen worked as a chemical engineer at DuPont and Prince George’s County air pollution control. She later shifted her focus to her family but was always keeping busy with various activities. She enjoyed officiating field hockey and lacrosse at club, high school, and collegiate levels, Game Night/Book Club with the ladies, bowling, tennis and pickleball. Together, she and John spent time together traveling, Volksmarching, attending Broadway theater, and, of course, cheering on the Penn State sports teams!!

Karen was active, involved, and always had a smile on her face. She took on many key roles within a variety of organizations. On the basis of her extensive work supporting youth sports she was inducted into both the Howard County Women’s Athletics Hall of Fame and Howard County Community Sports Hall of Fame. She was a past President of the Howard/Carroll Officials Association as well as founding member of the Maryland Select Officials Association. She was a former SAC Memorial Day Invitational Tournament Director and past Vice-President of the Maryland Youth Soccer Association. She was currently serving as Secretary of the Columbia Volksmarch Club and her local bowling league. She certainly left her mark on all of these organizations and will be hard to replace.

As much as she will be missed by her many friends and colleagues, her family will miss her dearly. She put her family above all else and was a fixture at the activities of her children and grandchildren. She was known as Oma to so many, a proud and enthusiastic supporter at sports events, plays, recitals, performances, and graduations, not only for her family, but for all their close friends as well. A highlight of every year was spending a week with her extended family at the KrouseGang reunion each July 4th, with Karen as the ringleader, and it is hard to imagine the family Beach House without her there.

We are planning for a celebration of life On July 3, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. at Owen Brown Interfaith Center. 7426 Cradlerock Way. Columbia, MD Please RSVP Under Memorial Contributions evite link. or you can copy and paste this link in your browser : http://evite.me/B1rzVBPZ8t

In lieu of flowers or plants, we would like to mention a few charities that Karen held dear: nicStrong; Just in Power Kids; Penn State Women’s Field Hockey.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.witzkefuneralhomes.com for the Dye family.