Denise Jane Noonan

Denise was born Sept. 11, 1954, the third of six children, of Lydia and Vaughn Noonan in Devils Lake, ND. When she was 9, her family moved from Leeds, ND, to Fort Collins, CO.

Denise was strong, brave, proud, determined, and fiercely private and independent. Since age 11, she faced the challenge of managing Type 1 Diabetes.

Whatever challenges she faced, she set high expectations for herself, wore a suit of armor, and set forth to become a highly respected medical physicist responsible for calculating radiation doses for cancer patients and calibrating the radiation devices. She was last employed as Senior Medical Physicist for 21st Century Oncology in Dothan, AL. Her goal was to ensure the best, safest outcomes for her patients through her own hard work and dedication. She often worked 70-80 hour weeks, sacrificing her own pleasure and relaxation, and to some degree, her own health, to make sure her patients got the best results possible.

Beneath the armor, however, she had a heart of gold. She had a soft spot in her heart for the vulnerable...abandoned animals, the elderly, and the sick and downtrodden. While still living at home, she got up early every morning with Mom and folded newspapers, then set off on her bike to deliver the papers, regardless of the weather. She had to collect from the people on her paper route, and spent extra time talking to the elderly and lonely, befriending many of them. Later, while in college, she took a part time job as a home helper, just because she cared about people who needed help. She practiced what God taught us: ""whatever you do to the least of our brothers, you do unto Me.""

She had the lead role in a high school Agatha Christie play. In one scene, she had to throw a dart across the stage at the bullseye target. On opening night, when others were overcome with jitters, she threw that dart straight and hard, and hit the bullseye, to the cheers and applause of the entire auditorium.

Denise approached school and work with the same pride and steely determination. She was salutatorian of her Fort Collins High School class, graduated from Colorado State University, then went on to earn her masters and PhD degrees in nuclear physics from Georgia Tech. She was Project Director and principle researcher for Theragenics Corp, the original manufacturer of Pd-103 prostrate implant seeds.

She loved the weather, charm, and eccentricities of the South, and lived there most of the rest of her life -- in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, and Alabama.

Though she was dedicated to her work, she found joy in the simple things in life. Above all, she loved her cats and dogs. She loved the beauty of the outdoors, enjoyed yard work and gardening, antiquing, and going for walks. She loved to read, especially books about the South, written by southerners like Pat Conway, Robert Penn Warren, and Anne Rivers Siddons.

Her work sometimes took her to faraway places like Argentina, Japan, and Sweden. Her sisters, Gail and Kathleen gladly accompanied her on many of these trips. She always came home to Colorado to spend Christmas with her family at the YMCA cabins at Estes Park. She is reunited now with her dear mother and father, who she loved very much. Her kind, gentle, and determined spirit will always live in our hearts. We loved her. She is now at peace with God.

Memorial donations may be made to the Humane Society at www.humanesociety.org/donate/ in the name of Denise Noonan, 3099 S. Vine St., Denver, CO 80201. Memorial Services will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, September 15, 2012. Inurnment Resthaven Memory Gardens.