Kathy Sullivan

Kathy Sullivan was a clerk/office manager for Denali National Park's South District based in Talkeetna, Alaska. As a former ski instructor, climbing guide, assistant guide to Ray Genet, and the mother of Genet's two children, Kathy has led an active, adventurous life, including scaling Argentina's daunting Aconcagua while pregnant. All that makes clerical work for the government a less than totally satisfying lifestyle. However, after Ray Genet's death on Mount Everest in 1979, single-parent necessities forced the adjustment to a more conventional 9 to 5 work schedule. Nevertheless, Kathy sympathizes with larger park purposes and admires her immediate mountaineering ranger associates. In 1991, at age twelve, her son, Taras Genet, was the youngest person to summit Denali.