Funeral services for 77-year old Karolyn Fish were held Saturday, November 11, 2023 at St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Chadron.
Online condolences may be left at chamberlainchapel.com
Karolyn was born November 6, 1946, in Chadron to John and Henrietta Luben of Crawford, NE, and passed away on Nov 7, 2023.
John worked for Northwestern Bell as a telephone technician in Crawford and managed the Crawford telephone office, so Karolyn attended elementary school in Crawford until December of 1959 when John was transferred to Chadron to manage the Chadron office and the technical side of the operations there.
When the family moved in December of 1959, it consisted of Karolyn, her parents, and younger brother Bill who was born on November 2, 1952.
With the move, Karolyn became a 7th grader at Chadron Junior High. She continued on through the Chadron schools until graduating from Chadron High School in May of 1965.
Four months later, Karolyn started college as a freshman at Kearney State College. She majored in consumer science and biological science, but in 1967 she transferred to Chadron State College. She changed her major field in the fall semester of 1968 to medical technology.
After graduating from Chadron State in the spring of 1969, Karolyn accepted an internship as a medical technologist at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Alliance, now Box Butte General Hospital. When her year of internship ended, she moved to Sidney, NE, where her parents had moved in 1965.
Karolyn worked at the Sidney Memorial Hospital, then attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln to receive a Master’s Degree in Foods and Nutrition.
In August of 1970 Karolyn married Terry Christopher of Chadron, her high school and college sweetheart. The couple moved to Duluth, MN, where she worked at a large local hospital as a registered dietitian designing diets for burn patients and patients addicted to alcohol and drugs.
Terry’s work took the couple to Chicago, where Karolyn got a position with Sugar Foods, a producer of such products as toppings, croutons, and beverage ingredients for foodservice, retail and private label distribution.
Karolyn enjoyed working for Sugar Foods and advanced to several different management positions including a vice-presidency. The couple moved again, though, as Terry’s job with Amoco Oil Company took them to Houston, Texas.
Karolyn landed a new job in Houston with Sysco Foods, a huge company concerned with food research, development, and distribution. Because of her background in food, nutrition, and dietetics, she excelled at Sysco as well.
The next move was to Castle Pines, CO, where Terry worked for British Petroleum and Karolyn was still with Sysco. Sysco closed its Denver office, though, so Karolyn took a teaching position at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.
Karolyn’s father passed away on Feb 28, 1981, leaving her widowed mother living in Sidney. Karolyn and her mother were quite close and as her mother’s health got worse Karolyn and Terry moved back to Sidney to help take care of her.
By then, Terry had retired from British Petroleum, so Terry and Karolyn started an embroidery business to help bolster their income.
Her mother passed away on December 18, 1998, by which time Karolyn had started a dietetic consulting business. At one time, she was the consulting dietitian for 13 to 15 nursing homes and hospitals in western Nebraska.
Terry died in February of 2008, but Karolyn kept her dietetic consulting work going. She decided to move to Chadron in 2012 and cut back the number of her clients.
After moving to Chadron, Karolyn would go to the Chadron Senior Center for lunch and in 2019 met Guy Fish of Chadron, who was widowed in February of 2016.
Guy and Karolyn started dating that fall and on April 23, 2021, they were wed in Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church in Chadron. Karolyn and Guy lived happily together until she passed away after 4 wonderful years together.