A Generous Spirit

Colleagues recall the warmth and laughter Kathy Bulla brought to all

The blushing bride

 Chad Carver, information specialist for the medical library, dances with Kathy Bulla at her wedding. David Beckwith, president and CEO of Health Network Laboratories, remembers teasing Kathy during a meeting after her wedding. "I made a big deal out of our having a 'Mrs.' Bulla in our midst. She beamed with joy," he says. "That's the Kathy I will remember."

Surrounded by colleagues

Kathy Bulla (back row, center) spent many hours after work at events like craft nights and supper clubs with her colleagues, including (clockwise from upper left) Sheryl Shegina, Karen Harrison, Julie Mehta, Marjorie Te, Judy Heffelfinger, Melissa Snyder, Barb Matika, Bala Carver, M.D., Kathy Koch, Giuliano Liberatore and Carol Durka.

Christmas is a time for giving, and that’s just how Kathy Bulla celebrated it. “She would invite everyone from work to her home,” says colleague Kathy Koch, a lab technologist for Health Network Laboratories. “And she’d send everyone home with a tin of cookies. Her specialty was chocolate drop cookies.” Another year, Bulla handpicked berries and made her colleagues homemade jelly.

It was Bulla’s generous spirit that her friends and colleagues will miss most. Bulla, manager of the blood bank for 25 years, died tragically in January. “She was my right hand,” says Bala Carver, M.D., Health Network Laboratories' medical director, who attended Bulla’s wedding last year. “Kathy treated my son, Christopher, like her nephew.”

A champion of LVHHN's blood drives, Bulla sent countless e-mails urging colleagues to donate— contributing to the collection of more than 2,100 units of blood during the past five years. She also arranged an annual breakfast to celebrate donors who gave blood three times in a calendar year.

Inside and outside the office, Bulla’s vibrant personality made people smile. “She was always laughing and giggling, and always willing to try new things—golfing, cooking, baking, gardening, crafting, water skiing,” says Rosemary Dotterer, a technician in the HLA laboratory.

Deb Gress, a technician, recalls frequent golfing trips with Bulla. “We were just happy if we hit the ball and it went in the right direction,” she says. “Kathy would say, ‘Why should we carry the whole bag for nine holes? We only use one club.’ ”

One word comes to mind when Chris Cressman, a lab technologist, thinks about Bulla: shoes. “She had these gold shoes that were like ballerina slippers,” she says. “Actually, she had them in all colors.”

Bulla’s colleagues miss the clumping sound those shoes made on the floor when she walked. They also miss the way she would stand with one leg crossed over the other, and her tendency to blush at anything.

Her husband, Bob, enjoyed all those characteristics about her and more. “Kathy loved to travel, whether it was to England or Greece, or on our annual December trips to Williamsburg, Va.,” he says. “She loved to decorate our house and work in the garden. My time with her was the happiest of my life.”

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