Kallmer, Diana Christine (1941-2019)

KALLMER, BODAKEN, POWELL, WOODROW

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 5/18/2021 at 17:36:23

Diana Christine Kallmer
March 4, 1941 - February 27, 2019

Diana Christine Kallmer passed away peacefully surrounded by her family at the U W Hospital on February 27, 2019, at the age of 77. She lived her life with gusto, even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2018.

Diana was born on March 4, 1941, to George and Cecilia Bodaken, in Springfield, Missouri, and grew up in Pomeroy and Storm Lake. In Storm Lake she attended St. Mary’s School from seventh grade through high school, graduating in 1959. In 1963, she graduated from Drake University in Des Moines with honors and a BA in English. After teaching for two years in Des Moines, she moved to New York City to enjoy the excitement of the big city and for those two years she worked in Manhattan as an executive assistant for a CEO.

In 1967, she married Jim Kallmer and moved to Seattle despite being wistful about leaving NYC. She had known Jim since that day at the beach her first summer in Storm Lake before seventh grade, and they remained very good “friends” through junior high, high school, college, and beyond.

In Seattle Diana worked as a paralegal, as law firm office manager, and as the administrative officer for the Nesholm Family Foundation for twenty years, a job she dearly loved, retiring in 2010.

An inveterate traveler, Diana enjoyed many trips to Europe. From Sweden to Greece she wandered with Jim between 1970 and 2017. She most liked France, Italy, Spain, and Greece. The capper was spending two weeks in Paris for their fiftieth anniversary in September 2017. In September 2018, after seven months of chemotherapy, she engineered a two-week trip to Spain with Jim, sons Brent and Josh, and Josh’s wife, Dylana.

An accomplished cook, Diana loved to entertain, especially during the summer with the deck in its full glory with her flowers in bloom. In quiet times, she loved Mozart or Beethoven in the background, maybe with a bit of Dewar’s scotch close at hand. A bright and shiny woman, she had a multitude of friends, many of them members of the Sunset Club.

Diana is survived by Jim, her husband of fifty-one years; her son, Josh (Dylana) and her granddaughters, Nadia and Mira, of Washington D.C.; and her son, Brent, of Alexandria, Virginia; her brother, Edward (Jennifer) Bodaken, and his children: Matt, Amy (Pat) and Chris (Jessica), all of the Los Angeles, California area; her sister, Mary (Rick) Powell, of Tucson, Arizona, and their children, Eric (Margaret) Powell, of Chicago, and Meredith (Martin) Woodrow, of Castle Rock, Colorado; her cousin, Michael (Fran) Bodaken, of Silver Spring, Maryland; and her cousin, Bruce Bodaken, of Tiburon, California; as well as by her many dear friends.

An invitational celebration of Diana’s life will be held at a later time. Donations can be made in Diana’s name to the Jubilee Women’s Center in Seattle or the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance uncompensated care fund.

The Family of Diana Kallmer, 2018.