Vera Karel Corey

Vera Karel Corey passed away of natural causes related to dementia on March 25, 2016 in Las Cruces, NM. She was born June 14, 1917, in the town of Lykens, PA. She was the daughter of Reverend Peter Karel, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was a native of Galicia, a province of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, from a village now in southeastern Poland. Her mother, Anna Fritz, was a daughter of immigrants, also from Galicia. Vera graduated from the Pittsburg School of Pharmacy in 1938 with high honors. She was a pharmacist in State College, PA, where she met her husband, Art Corey. They moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1955. Her husband was first employed by the experiment station at Colorado A&M as a ground water scientist. She is survived by her two sons Philip and Paul Corey and her husband of 73 years, Dr. Arthur T. Corey. Her older brother, Alexander Karel, and younger sister Tatiana “Tiny” Onuschak preceded her in death.

She and her husband, who had become a professor at Colorado State University, traveled the world as a water scientist and teacher to Thailand, Pakistan, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey, and Sri Lanka, as well as various State Universities in the United States.

She was active in her church, an Eastern Orthodox Church, that she helped establish in 1995 in Fort Collins. She was involved in many volunteer projects. Her chief project was the “Cancer Work Room” where Vera supervised a group of Lady Volunteers, mainly making garments for cancer patients. Vera was supervisor of this group for 35 years. Vera’s life as a volunteer ended when she was diagnosed with dementia in 2002. Vera had been cared for by Art since that time.