Kathleen MacLeod
Mother of Brother Chris MacLeod and Wife of Retiree John MacLeod.
The Lodge regrets to announce the passing of Kathleen M. MacLeod.
Kathleen M. MacLeod (née Decker) was born on November 10, 1950, in Ames, Iowa to Rose Marie Decker (née Kurtos) and Richard Warren Decker, the oldest of four children, passing on May 8, 2024, after a short illness, in Tucson, Arizona.
Kathy graduated from Catonsville High School, Baltimore County, Maryland in 1968 and started college in one of the first classes at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She attended the University of Maryland Nursing school on the ROTC program and received her commission upon graduation in 1972, joining the Army commissioned as a second lieutenant. She resigned her commission in 1974 after her tour of duty as a First Lieutenant in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where she met her husband, Army MP Staff Sargent John Charles Macleod.
Kathy and John were married shortly thereafter in 1974 and would have been married 50 years in June of this year (2024). They moved through several of John’s Army postings, including Fort Richie in Hagerstown, Maryland and Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen, Germany.
Back in the States, Kathy practiced the art of nursing at St Agnes and Johns Hopkins among others but found the most joy as a school nurse in the Baltimore City School System, earning her Master of Education in 1980 from Boston University. In 1999, she became a pediatric nurse practitioner after returning to school at Johns Hopkins University.
In 2011 Kathy and her husband retired to Southern Arizona, returning to where they first met. Never one to let the moss grow, Kathy had a variety of retirement endeavors, including marriage officiant, Reiki master, jewelry making, knitting & scrap booking; even at the end of her life she was still lighting fires – the hospital didn’t realize she had been moved to a previously empty room that was subsequently a report location for a fire drill.
Kathy was preceded in death by her parents, Rose Marie and Richard Decker. She is survived by her husband John Charles MacLeod, three sons Christopher MacLeod, Matthew MacLeod, Andrew MacLeod and daughter-in-law Amy, her three siblings Rick Decker & wife Su Willard, Karen Decker, and Russ Decker & wife Lauren Decker, along with numerous nieces and nephews.
The Lodge extends its condolences to the MacLeod family.
