Kathryn Liesse Gessel

Kathryn Liesse Gessel passed peacefully at her home in Paso Robles, CA on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. She lived there for two years, but spent most of her life in Carlsbad, NM. In 1958, after graduating from college in Albuquerque, she left New Mexico to move to California where she had been recruited to teach high school. There she met John Gessel, who had also recently arrived to teach elementary school in Riverside County. They married in 1960 and moved to Santa Barbara before eventually settling in San Diego where they raised their four children – Meg, Chris, Julie and Elizabeth. She retired from work at a local bank in 1999 to return to Carlsbad two years after her beloved husband of 37 years passed away. Once back in Carlsbad, she was able to be with her mother, Edith Liesse, for the last five years of Edith’s life and reconnect with her local childhood friends and family. Kay, as she was always known, was a devoted Catholic and an active member of the community, volunteering regularly for the 25 years she was back in Carlsbad at St. Edward’s Church, Jonah’s House, and the Living Desert. She was a member of Catholic Daughters, Alpha Chi Omega, and the American Association of University Women. Once a month she had lunch at the Pizza Inn with a group of women she had been friends with since kindergarten.

Kathryn Rose Liesse was born on July 8, 1936 in Madrid, New Mexico to Louis and Edith (Zeni) Liesse. They moved when she was very young to Carlsbad where her father worked at the potash mine. Louis died when she was five and her grandparents, along with her mother, opened a boarding house on Main Street, where she lived until she left for the university. Even though she was an only child, she was surrounded with countless cousins (the Zeni’s and the McDonald’s) and other extended family. She was proud of her roots in New Mexico and always planned to return. Kay is survived by her four children Meg, Chris (Elizabeth), Julie (Robert), and Elizabeth (Kag), and six grandchildren Dominic, Stella, Milo, Jack, Ransome, and June. There will be a memorial mass at St. Edward’s Catholic Church on Friday, June 12th at 10am followed by a catered reception at Epworth Methodist Church. Donations can be made in her name to Jonah’s House or The Living Desert.