Kathleen Sue Harris

Kathleen and I met in college at MSU. She was thoughtful and smart. A great advocate for women’s rights and a great friend, always ready to stick up for people. I had so many good times with Kathleen. We were room mates for awhile and I remember when her snake escaped for a few months. She didn’t tell anyone because she was afraid they would hunt the snake down and hurt it. Eventually the snake showed back up again. The above picture of her shows that smile she had. Just so accepting and warm. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

This is Kathleen’s old friend from college, Pete Tridish. I am devastated to hear of her passing, she was such an inspiring person. We worked together on a proposal to lead an Environmental Field Program, a three month trip that Antioch students went on for credit in Environmental Sciences. The idea was a little too crazy and did not get picked- usually the program was lead by two former students, and took the students out camping and visiting rural farms, fisheries, forests, etcetera, but we wanted to go up and down the east coast and spend most of our time looking at the environmental impacts in the cities.

Of course, Kathleen was best known at Antioch for her powerful and effective advocacy on the Sexual Offense Policy, which at the time was lampooned on Saturday Night Live as “too politically correct,” but which has now become the new standard in many colleges. Though it was misrepresented in media, the policy just helped young people who were first learning about intimacy to understand the importance of clear verbal communication, not a man’s “intuition” that gets into his head about what a woman wants. Millions of college women owe their greater safety and greater institutional recourse in the face of sexual violence to Kathleen’s pioneering efforts.

We also were part of a group that launched a pirate radio station in Philadelphia, Radio Mutiny. Her energy and vision contributed immensely to that project. The station was very successful for two years until it was shut down by the FCC… and it was even successful in its demise because we ended up passing national legislation that made these sorts of community radio stations legal, and there are now several thousand around the country. Kathleen was the main contact with the FCC at that time, and managed to create a jovial and friendly dynamic with the agents who were pursuing us. The Chief of Enforcement, Richard Lee, sent her an email comparing himself to the Borg in Star Trek– he said to her “Resistance is Futile ; > ) ” This was another project that Kathleen participated in that sounded radical at the time, but is now acknowledged as common sense– that the airwaves don’t just belong to the corporations, but ordinary people should have a part in making media.

I remember visiting her in her lab and seeing bits and pieces of the experiments she did on artificial blood while she was assisting the award winning inventor, Leland Clark. She had a powerful intellect and a fierce desire to make the world a better place, in every way that she could.

I had lost touch with Kathleen after she left Philadelphia, and don’t really know what she has been doing in recent years. But I always assumed she was out there somewhere fighting fiercely for something important to her, and i was counting on that because she was such a force for justice in this world. My condolences to her current friends and family.

I am so sad to hear of Kathleen’s passing. I have nothing but good memories of her. A sharp, strong, and smart woman and a great friend, she will be missed.

This obituary is what I found when I googled my old friend today, Nov. 1, 2020.

Kathleen changed my life. I was desperate to get out of a bad living situation in Columbus, and she helped me get set up in Yellow Springs and onto a positive path in life. For 3 years, when mutual friends and I wanted to put together hedonistic all-night dance parties, Kathleen repeatedly insisted on helping us secure the venues and she’d give us the up-front expenses, taken from her own student loans, and every time we paid her back, she acted like it would have been totally fine if we didn’t. Whenever any of her friends crossed her path, she was more than welcoming, eager to catch up, and generous to a fault. She would get so excited whenever anyone would visit her, wherever she was. She loved anyone who was pursuing their passions, no matter how nerdy and uncool. She had many friends and loved all of them. Her enthusiasm was boundless and infectious. She, herself, was passionate about so many things, including music and social justice. I remain inspired by her. I can’t believe she’s gone.