Karen Marie Pearl

Karen was a loving mother and wife, a devoted sister and grandmother, an accomplished educator and aerospace engineer, a mentor to many, an enthusiastic traveler, a gifted gardener with a lifelong love of flowers, and a woman whose intelligence, determination and fierce devotion to her family were evident throughout her life.

Karen was born Karen Marie Huffman on August 16, 1943, in Springfield, Ohio, to Chester Jacob Huffman and Louise Mary Huffman. She grew up in Springfield with her older brothers, John and Paul, and her younger sister, Linda.

Karen graduated from Springfield North High School in 1961. A gifted mathematician with a lifelong love of learning, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Wittenberg University in 1965 and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Oberlin College in 1966.

Karen began her professional career as a mathematics teacher with Northwestern Local Schools near Springfield. She taught first at the junior-high level and later at Northwestern High School, where she taught algebra and advanced mathematics.

Karen expected a great deal from her students because she believed they were capable of achieving it. She held them accountable, maintained high academic standards and challenged them to do their best, but behind those expectations was a teacher who cared deeply about the young people in her classroom. She spent extra time helping students who needed it and became a coach and mentor as well as a teacher.

Her effectiveness was reflected in the words of both colleagues and students. Her fellow educators remembered Karen as organized, hardworking, fair and deeply committed to her students. Years later, one former student wrote Karen from college to thank her for the preparation she had provided, explaining that college calculus came easily because Karen had already taught her the concepts in high school. The student particularly remembered Karen’s ability to explain difficult mathematical concepts in understandable terms.

That ability—to master something difficult and then help someone else understand it—would remain a defining quality throughout Karen’s life. She coached and mentored not only students, but also family members, friends and, later, fellow engineers and coworkers.

On July 20, 1968, Karen married Thomas Alexander Brown at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Springfield. Together they raised their two sons, Keith Thomas Brown and Mark Eric Brown. Karen and Thomas built their family and life together until Thomas died of cancer in 1988 at the young age of 47. Karen was widowed far earlier than she had expected, but she continued to move forward with the same resilience and determination that characterized so much of her life.

Motherhood and family were at the center of Karen’s life. She was fiercely protective of the people she loved and was never afraid to stand up for her family. Those closest to her knew that beneath her intelligence, independence and strong will was a woman whose loyalty to her family ran extraordinarily deep. She wanted the people she loved to succeed, encouraged them to expect more of themselves and was there when they needed someone firmly in their corner.

Karen eventually moved with her family to Washington State. She held teaching credentials in both Ohio and Washington and was certified in Washington to teach both mathematics and German at the secondary-school level.

In 1979, Karen began a remarkable new chapter of her professional life when she joined The Boeing Company. She started as a Technical Aide and, drawing on her strong mathematical background, determination and ability to learn complex subjects, advanced into engineering. Over the next 18 years, she rose through the engineering ranks and ultimately retired as a Lead Engineer in 1997.

Karen contributed to a number of Boeing programs and was particularly involved in development of the Boeing 777. She held a leading engineering role associated with the aircraft’s wing design during a period of enormous technological change in aerospace engineering.

Karen was also an early adopter of CATIA, the sophisticated three-dimensional computer-aided design system that became central to the 777 program and Boeing’s transition toward fully digital aircraft design. She learned the new system, became highly proficient with it, and then did what came naturally to a lifelong teacher: she helped others learn it. Karen worked with fellow engineers as they adapted to the new technology, helping her engineering team make the transition to a fundamentally different way of designing airplanes. Her accomplishments at Boeing included receiving the company’s Pride in Excellence (π) Award.

Several years after losing Thomas, Karen found love again. In 1993, she married Howard Andrew Pearl. Their marriage brought together a blended family that included Karen’s sons, Keith and Mark, and Howard’s children, Phillip Pearl, Judie Donabauer, Julie Gustafson and Felicia Abbott. By that time, the children on both sides were largely grown and living their own lives, and Karen developed and maintained close relationships with family members across the blended family.

Karen and Howard shared 27 years of marriage before Howard’s death in 2020. They built a life together filled with family, friendships and travel, eventually making their home in Maple Valley, WA.

Karen and Howard loved to travel, and over the years they traveled extensively throughout the United States and around the world. Karen enjoyed experiencing new places, seeing different parts of the world and sharing those experiences with Howard, family and friends. Travel became one of the great pleasures of their years together.

Wherever Karen made a home, there was also likely to be a beautiful flower garden nearby. She loved flowers and gardening and took great pride in creating colorful, carefully tended gardens. Family and friends remember that she seemed to have one of the nicest flower gardens wherever she lived. Gardening gave her both a creative outlet and the satisfaction of watching something she had carefully nurtured grow and flourish. Karen had a lifelong affection for crows that began when she was a child. She once had a pet crow that would wait for her when she got off the school bus, follow her around, and even ride on the handlebars of her bicycle. Her fondness for crows never left her; years later, she regularly fed them in her garden.

Karen was raised Lutheran and carried throughout her life a strong sense of responsibility, independence, education, hard work and family. She was a loving wife and mother, a successful career woman at a time when relatively few women held senior technical roles in aerospace engineering, and a person who continually challenged herself and the people around her to learn, grow and do their best.

Her life followed an unusual and accomplished path—from mathematics student, to teacher, to mother, to aerospace engineer and technical leader. Yet the roles were more connected than they might first appear. Karen spent a lifetime teaching, coaching and mentoring. Whether she was helping a teenager understand calculus, encouraging one of her sons, advising a family member, helping a coworker solve a problem, or teaching fellow engineers to work with an entirely new digital design system, Karen had a gift for helping people become more capable and confident.

She could be strong-willed and demanding, particularly when something—or someone—mattered to her. But those who knew Karen understood where that strength came from. She cared deeply, loved fiercely and protected her family fiercely. She believed in preparation, education, independence and doing things well. She expected much from herself and encouraged those she loved to expect much from themselves as well.

In the final chapter of her life, Karen faced the challenges of advanced dementia. Throughout that time, she remained surrounded by family and cared for with love and devotion. She lived with her son Mark, her daughter-in-law Marsela, and her granddaughter Khloe. Their home became Karen’s home as well, and they shared with her the daily moments, care and companionship of those final years. Mark, Marsela and Khloe were by Karen’s side when she peacefully passed away on the morning of October 29.

Karen is survived by her sons, Keith (Charlotte) Brown and Mark (Marsela) Brown; her younger sister, Linda Knighting; her stepchildren, Phillip Pearl, Judie Donabauer, Julie (Mark) Gustafson and Felicia (Scott) Abbott; and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who brought great meaning and joy to her life.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, Thomas Alexander Brown, who died of cancer in 1988 at age 47; her second husband, Howard Andrew Pearl, who died in 2020; her parents, Chester and Louise Huffman; and her older brothers, John Huffman and Paul Huffman.

Karen’s legacy can be found in many places: in the family she loved and protected, in former students who carried lessons from her classroom into their adult lives, in coworkers and engineers she helped teach and mentor, in the airplanes she helped design, in the places around the world she experienced, and in the beautiful gardens she left behind wherever she made a home.

A private family memorial is being planned.