Kathy Karpan

Kathleen Marie “Kathy” Karpan, a “coal miner’s daughter” who grew up in Rock Springs, graduated from Rawlins High School and went on to twice win an election as a Democrat to be Wyoming’s Secretary of State, died at her home in Cheyenne on October 24, 2025. She was 83.

Kathy was born in Rock Springs in 1942, daughter of Thomas Michael and Pauline Taucher Karpan, and at an early age was inspired by future President John F. Kennedy to pursue a life of public service. Her extended family were the quintessential Croatian-Slovenian immigrant family living life in Rock Springs - the home of fifty-six nationalities.

In 1954, Kathy’s mother, Pauline Taucher, died from kidney disease the day after her 37th birthday, leaving three young children. Kathy was only twelve years old, Judy was nine and Frank was seven. The immediate family recommended to Tom Karpan that Kathy and Judy be moved to the Wyoming Children’s Home in Torrington and Frank, the only boy, would be taken in by family. Kathy begged her father to keep the family together. She promised she would assume the role of mother and care giver to her younger siblings. Tom Karpan relented to Kathy’s plea and the family stayed together. Kathy fulfilled that role watching over Judy and Frank for many years.

Kathy was a devout Catholic her entire life to her last breath. Kathy cherished her religion and never wavered from it even when her friends argued for Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism. After she retired from the practice of law in 2016, Kathy would read the Bible and say a litany of prayers for two hours a day. Kathy could probably count on two hands the number of times she missed Mass in her eighty-three years. Kathy wanted her family to express her deep appreciation to Father Tom Cronkelton, the rector of the Cathedral of St. Mary who came every Friday afternoon for this past year to give her the Anointing sacrament and Communion.

At the age of seven Kathy decided she wanted to be an Egyptologist. But that aspiration was set aside when she discovered politics and public service. From an astonishingly early age, Kathy was enthralled with politics and government. When she was seven, Kathy began hearing about a Boston Catholic named John F. Kennedy who was serving in the U. S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Kathy rode her bicycle to the Rock Springs Library and read a short book or magazine article about him.

In 1952, she started her political career when she inserted an Adlai Stevenson bumper sticker through her bicycle spokes and rode through her Rock Springs neighborhood campaigning for the Democratic candidate for President. There began a political career that burgeoned throughout her life. Kathy went to the University of Wyoming where she majored in journalism and became the first woman editor of the student newspaper, the Branding Iron. She shook JFK's hand when he appeared at UW in September, 1963, and wrote a moving memoir in the BI after he was killed in Dallas two months later. “Death put his hand upon one we loved … but it can never take his dreams,” she wrote. After graduation she went to the news desk of the Cody Enterprise. Seeking a professional entree into politics, U.S. Congressman Teno Roncalio hired her as press secretary, serving from1965-67. She then worked at the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. When Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated in 1968, Kathy as a young woman was so disheartened that she moved to Canberra, Australia and worked at the copy desk of the Canberra Times. She returned to UW and in May 1970 she earned a master’s degree in American Studies.

After Wyoming voters re-elected Roncalio to the U.S. House in November 1970, Kathy returned with him to Washington, first as press secretary and then Chief of Staff until 1975. Understanding that a firm grasp of the American legal system formed the basis of a life in public service, Kathy enrolled in the University of Oregon School of Law in 1975 where she excelled academically and socially. During that time she won the Pacific Northwest Regional Moot Court championship and her classmates gave her a standing ovation when she reappeared in her evidence class. Always wanting to return to national politics, Kathy went back to Washington as legal counsel to the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, 1978-1981. In September, 1981, Kathy returned to Wyoming and spearheaded Rodger McDaniel’s Senate campaign against incumbent Sen. Malcolm Wallop. She then became a state assistant attorney general representing the Wyoming Department of Health and Social Services and the Board of Medical Examiners. In 1984 Gov. Herschler appointed Kathy as director of the Health Department where she remained until her successful campaign for Wyoming Secretary of State in 1986.

Kathy was a middle of the road pragmatic Democrat. She rejected the ideologies of the far Left and the far Right. She believed, as JFK believed, that government should operate efficiently and have, as its primary purpose, to serve the people and, in turn, Americans should serve their country, Kathy became a charter member of the Democratic Leadership Council of which then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was President. Her association with the DLC led to her meeting and knowing President and Senator Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore and Tipper Gore.

Kathy was elected Secretary of State in 1987 and was reelected in 1991 with over 65% of the vote. Kathy may be the first, or perhaps the only, Democrat in Wyoming history to win all twenty-three counties.

In 1994, Kathy ran for Governor and led in the polls until mid-October when the Newt Gingrich movement gained traction in political races country wide. Kathy lost her race, along with hundreds of Democrats across the country. Kathy described it as a tsunami.

Kathy thought she was finished with running for office until 1996 when several prominent U.S. Senators called to urge her to run for the Wyoming seat vacated by Sen. Alan K. Simpson. Many people thought she could win as a middle of the road Democrat, although Kathy herself never believed she could win. Many political operatives dubbed her the next Nancy Kassebaum of the U.S. Senate. When asked what her particular focus would be if she was elected, Kathy said to help “the working poor.”

That election disappointment morphed over the years into a collection of treasured memories of meeting key political and economic leaders of those times. Kathy would often describe that race as “heady times.”

After the Senate race of 1996, President Clinton appointed Kathy to be the director of the United States Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement- an agency of the Department of Interior. Later on, Kathy was asked to be the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management. Kathy served at Interior from May of 1997 until the end of the second Clinton administration. 

Kathy was living a mile from the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and witnessed the burning of the Pentagon through that night. At that time, Kathy decided that she needed to be home in Wyoming for good. It must have been a sad decision, as Kathy’s OSM appointment was the fourth time in her life that she had moved to D.C., ever compelled to serve the country which she loved so dearly. 

Another lifelong avocation was studying ancient history. One time, Kathy declared to a friend that the Sumerians were her absolute favorite people. A small sampling of the books by her bedside when Kathy passed away dealt with Herodotus, the middle kingdoms of Central Europe, a history of the ancient world and the Persians. Kathy struggled with an aggressive and rare cancer for the past year. Throughout this time, Kathy often quoted Pope John XXIII who said “my bags are packed and I’m ready to go.” Kathy often ended her speeches by quoting Saint Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

She is survived by her younger sister Judy Price. Frank Karpan, Kathy’s brother, predeceased her, dying as a young man in an industrial accident working on the Trailblazer Pipeline in 1982. Kathy is also survived by her nieces and nephews, David Price, Tommy Price, Kathy Price Mesinas, Tracey Price Hart, Matthew Karpan and Jeff Karpan. Kathy and her sister Judy were very close to their Rock Springs cousins, Marilyn Karpan Kendall, Sister Sheila Karpan and Paula Karpan. One of her Rock Springs cousins, Mary Kay Karpan Dexter passed away in 1997. In lieu of flowers, Kathy would have asked that donations be made to St. Joseph’s Children’s Home in Torrington or Danny Thomas’ St. Jude Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She identified with St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes, because after all she spent a lifetime believing in hopeless causes. Funeral services are scheduled at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Cheyenne. A Rosary will be said at 7:00 p.m. at the Cathedral on Sunday, November 2nd, The Funeral Mass is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Monday, November 3rd. A reception at the adjacent Hartman Hall will follow. Interment will be in the Rock Springs cemetery at a later date.