Saturday, January 19th, 2008, Kennan Garvey, husband of Libby Garvey, passed away at their home in Arlington.

A memorial meeting was held for Kennan on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008, at 1pm at the Friends Meeting of Washington.
Click here to learn more about the memorial, read the program, and listen to people speak at the meeting.

Read Kennan's obituary from his hometown of Evansville, Indiana.

Read tributes to Kennan written by his family and friends.

For Kennan's memorial, the Garvey family asked for donations to Phoenix Bikes in lieu of flowers. This is a group which teaches kids how to repair bikes and was one of the organizations Kennan was planning to devote time to in his upcoming retirement. As many of you know, Kennan was an avid cyclist and always did most of the maintenance on his bikes himself. He loved working with kids and passing on his knowledge in so many areas. He would have taken great satisfaction in teaching kids to be self-reliant operators of his favorite environmentally-friendly vehicle!

A Kennan Garvey Memorial Fund has been established through Phoenix Bikes. To find out more and to support this cause that was so important to Kennan, visit: http://www.phoenixbikes.org/en/support/kennangarveyfund

My life changed completely on January 19, 2008. Kennan Garvey, my athletic husband of over 34 years, dropped dead of a heart attack. Suddenly I was plunged into a very painful and difficult part of life for which I had no preparation. Kennan and I met at 18 and had been together since. Suddenly, my life partner was gone. Family, friends and faith have helped me immensely, but Kennan's tissue donation for others gave me a gift as well: the Washington Regional Transplant Community (WRTC). The WRTC not only saw that Kennan's tissue donation helped many others, but also helped me and my daughters navigate the grief process.

Organ and tissue donation improve life quality or give the gift of life itself, but it is something few people want to think or talk about. As a way to recognize the first anniversary of Kennan's death, I wrote an article about my experience for the Washington Post. It appeared on January 19, 2009. I hope my readers find it helpful and that it encourages you to talk about donation with your loved ones and to register as donors.

Click here to read: He Died Suddenly, but He's Still Helping Others Live Better