Kathy Ashton-Miller
Kathy Ashton-Miller
(nee Moe) passed away
peacefully at home in
Ann Arbor on January 15,
2021 at the age of 75 years
following an aggressive
brain cancer.
Kathy was born to
Donald O. and Helen E.
Moe of Minot, North
Dakota. Her father was a
WW2 Army pilot and fly-
ing instructor who flew
the “hump,” supplying
the Chinese resistance
from northern India
through the Himalayas in
good and bad weather.
After the war he became a
successful Dodge Chrysler
Plymouth dealer in Minot.
Her mother was a
homemaker and skilled
cook, assisted with the
business, used her beauti-
ful voice in a trio and sub-
scribed to the adage “Live
well while you’re living.”
Kathy received her K-12
education in the Minot
schools and often helped
her Dad by greeting custo-
mers in his showroom. A
highlight was travelling
by train all the way to
Florida so she could hear
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
speak and meet him per-
sonally. While in school,
Kathy took classical ballet
for many years during
which she discovered her
love of teaching younger
students. She took a BA in
education, with a minor
in French, at Wilson Col-
lege in PA. While at Wil-
son, she signed up for
Operation Crossroads
Africa to spend a summer
building a school in Chad,
in the French speaking
sub-Sahara, using
sun-dried mud bricks.
In 1967, she was ac-
cepted into Teacher Corps
and a two year M.Ed. pro-
gram at the University of
Missouri where she be-
came a K-12 teacher and
reading specialist. She
lived and taught in a poor
neighborhood of inner
Kansas City. The school
had little paper and no
pencils for the children
so, ever resourceful,
Kathy called an executive
at the nearby Hallmark
Cards headquarters. The
next day, a truck backed
up to the school with a
year’s worth of supplies
for every child in every
class. Her first teaching
job in 1969 was at the E.B.
Newton School in
Winthrop, MA, just north
of the river from Logan
Airport in Boston. Her
classroom was the entire
top floor of the school in-
cluding a full size theater
stage, but the downside
was that all conversation
had to stop whenever a jet
took off, which was often.
Her next teaching job was
at Angier School in New-
ton, MA, where Dr. Ro-
land S. Barth, on his way
to becoming a national
leader in education, had
become principal after
taking a sabbatical from
the Harvard Education
School. In 1975, she mar-
ried James Ashton-Miller,
an M.I.T. graduate student
from Bristol, England. The
wedding was in Minot,
North Dakota, after which
they left for Oslo, Norway
where James obtained a
fellowship to study spine
biomechanics. To support
the family, Kathy took a
job teaching at the U.S.
Department of Defense
Oslo American School in
Bekkestua, while James
completed his doctoral
degree. Kathy bore their
first child, Ian, in 1977. In
1980, they moved to
Evanston, IL where Kathy
bore their second child,
Lindsay, and worked as
an educational consultant
at the Kohl Teaching
Center in Winnetka, IL. In
1983, she moved with her
family to Ann Arbor when
James took a faculty posi-
tion at the University of
Michigan in mechanical
engineering. Kathy
worked as a Lecturer and
University Supervisor for
Eastern Michigan Univer-
sity, interspersed by short
stints at the University of
Michigan, supervising
over 1,000 student teach-
ers until she was forced to
retire by brain cancer in
October 2020. She in-
stilled in them the need to
become lifelong learners
themselves in order to
continually improve their
teaching skills. They were
expected to recognize the
strengths and weaknesses
in every child and, ir-
respective of ethnicity,
background or economic
status, to foster the skills
that each child needed in
order to reach their full
potential. Kathy drew
people in as they were
drawn to her. In keeping
with the exceptional
teacher she was, she
listened carefully, en-
gaged fully, and brought
out the best attributes of
those with whom she in-
teracted. She could recall
their family members’
names and interests to the
very end. This aptitude
was so marked that her
neighbors nicknamed her
the “Mayor of Iroquois”
(Place), the street on
which she lived for 37
years, because she was al-
ways so well informed
and genuinely interested.
Recently, when she first
came home from the hos-
pital after her biopsy, her
car was followed down
the street by a gaggle of
children exclaiming
“Kathy’s back, Kathy’s
back” as they crowded
around the car to talk to
her. She was a devoted
wife and mother, and her
grandchildren, Aidan and
Gemma, were the apples
of her eye. Kathy was the
consummate hostess not
only because of her cu-
linary skills, but because
of her care for her guests’
comfort, which she nur-
tured through her com-
passion, curiosity, and
conversation. She was a
quiet social conduit who
brightened the lives of so
many.
One of Kathy’s motiva-
tions in life was not only
to help children thrive,
but also adults: she was
most happy when she
connected others with
resources, opportunities,
or each other. Her
wonderfully infectious
smile and sparkling eyes,
a “Know no strangers”
mantra, a resourceful na-
ture, and an ability to net-
work led to her improving
so many lives. For exam-
ple, to raise money for the
Burns Park Elementary
School library, she started
the Burns Park Run (now
in its 43rd year). She
raised money for two new
school playgrounds, or-
ganizing community
volunteers to build them
to stretch the money. So
that Ann Arbor’s
teenagers had a safe place
to go after school in order
to develop their interests
and new skills, she
co-founded Ann Arbor’s
Neutral Zone (which now
happily has its own build-
ing). She started the first
Seniors All Night Party at
Ann Arbor Pioneer High
School to provide the gra-
duating students a safe
place to celebrate, an idea
that spread rapidly. She
initiated and fostered the
Community Volunteers
for many years at the
University of Michigan
Depression Center in ord-
er to raise funds to help
children and adolescents
with depression, and she
chaired and served on
several community ser-
vice and PTO boards.
She is survived by: her
beloved husband of 45
years, James
Ashton-Miller, their son
Ian Ashton-Miller of Ann
Arbor, their daughter
Lindsay Van Zandt, hus-
band Mark Van Zandt and
their children Aidan (4.5
yrs) and Gemma Van
Zandt (2 yrs) of Brooklyn
Heights, NY, and Kathy’s
sister, Marilyn Fiedler, of
Minot, ND. They all miss
her terribly.
If you’d like, please
send a favorite memory of
Kathy to
kathyashtonmiller
memories@gmail.com
and we’ll collate them
into an album for her
grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the
family suggests a donation
in Kathy’s memory to the
University of Michigan
Depression Center. These
gifts will be used to sup-
port an endowment fund
to be established in
Kathy’s name to support
the research of an early
career faculty member in
order to help initiate a
paradigm shift in improv-ing the lives of children
and adolescents with
depression.
Gifts can be sent via
http://victors.us/kathy
ashtonmiller or by check
made payable to the
“University of Michigan”
and sent to the Michigan
Medicine Office of
Development, 1000 Oak-
brook Dr., Ste 100, Ann
Arbor, MI 48104. Please
indicate your gift is in
memory of Kathy
Ashton-Miller.