Business - Business News

POSTED: Friday, Jun. 26, 2009

Karen Durham, founder of Sean Humphrey House, dies at 69

Karen Durham, who founded Sean Humphrey House - the AIDS support center in Bellingham that bears her son's name - died Wednesday, June 24, of cancer. She was 69.

"Bellingham has lost a gem," said John Cooper, a Sean Humphrey board member when the house was still in the planning stages. "She had a vision and a mission to help people with AIDS, and she saw it through."

Services for Durham are pending.

Sean Humphrey, Durham's only child, died of AIDS in late 1992 at the age of 30. His last wish was the creation of a facility where people with AIDS could die with dignity.

Durham and her husband, Tom, her high school sweetheart and Sean's stepfather, rallied community support and funding to carry out his wish. When the six-apartment Sean Humphrey House opened in 1996, the closest comparable facility was in Seattle.

"She was intelligent, insightful, kind, decent," said James Winchester, a grant writer who worked with Durham. "Her work at Sean Humphrey House speaks for itself."

Tom Durham died one year after Sean Humphrey opened.

As medical treatment improved for those with AIDS, the focus at Sean Humphrey shifted to helping low-income people with HIV/AIDS who lack access to proper care and resources to live with the disease.

Durham was active in the community in other ways. She was a board member for Bellingham Public Library and for the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County. She also served on a state advisory council on HIV/AIDS, and was manager of Bellingham Farmers Market.

In 2000, with local Democrats divided, she ran as an independent candidate against state Rep. Kelli Linville, a fellow Bellingham Democrat.

"She was definitely an independent spirit," said Cooper, the former head of Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism who now holds a similar post in Yakima.

Durham's only sibling, Marilyn Radke of Montana, moved to Bellingham early this year to care for her. Radke described her sister as passionate about life and about politics, but also generous and good-natured.

"Everybody who knew her called her a force of nature," Radke said. "She was very courageous through it all."