A woman of many, many talents, the dishes produced from the kitchen of longtime Dowagiac resident Karen Pugh were something that her family always looked forward to enjoying.

Her son, Jeff, often had a friend over who was so enamored with her culinary skills that he began pestering her for her recipe for hamburgers, of all things.

Like so many of her other passions throughout life, though, Pugh was never one to strictly conform to a tried-and-true formula when it came to cooking, with her kitchen often becoming a laboratory for new ideas she would come up…with varying degrees of success, her husband Paul said.

“She was a very adventurous cook,” Paul said. “We often hear her say after dinner, ‘I shan’t make that again.’”

It was that sense of daring and pure zeal that allowed Pugh to work her way inside the hearts of hundreds of students, coworkers and neighbors throughout her life.

And now, many of those who knew and loved her are still struggling to recover following her passing.

Karen Pugh died of heart failure in her home in Dowagiac on March 20. She was 71 years old.

Pugh was born on Sept. 6, 1943, Elmer and Dorothy Burgeson in Cleveland, Ohio. While she enjoyed a happy childhood, she became gravely ill with severe anemia when she was 16 years old. Despite not being able to diagnose her condition as lupus until years later, the physician she visited made the decision to treat her for the condition anyway.

“That doctor’s decision kept her alive,” Paul said.

Several years later, she began studying biology at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. It was while she attended school there that she met her first husband, Ron Gunn, with whom she would later have her son, Jeff.

The couple moved to Dowagiac in 1967, when Ron was hired by Southwestern Michigan College to establish its athletic programs. Karen, meanwhile, began teaching at Dowagiac Union High School for several years before also going to work at the college, where she served as a counselor, and later dean of admissions, for over 35 years.

Following her first retirement from the college, she joined their educational talent search program, where she worked for several years before she was hired with the Dowagiac Union Schools Pathfinders alternative education program, where she worked for three years before finally retiring from education.

Though she originally set out in life to become a doctor, settling into molding the next generation of the community through teaching was a natural fit for someone like her, who was so invested in seeing others succeed, Jeff said.

“She was always interested in other people, to listen to what they had to say,” he said. “She was a very engaging person.”

Her interest in the welfare of others extended far beyond what she could just do for the community of Dowagiac, though. Every December, she would cut check after check for humanitarian charities, such as the American Cancer Society, Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, United Way and others. She was also heavily involved with several community service organizations, including the Dowagiac Junior Arts Club, 100 Women Who Make a Difference and CASA.

However, perhaps her biggest contribution to Dowagiac was one that she and Paul made 25 years ago, with the formation of the Beckwith Theatre Company. The couple, who were avid followers of literature and the stage, became regulars both on-stage and behind the scenes at the local community theatre house. Paul even wrote a play about how the two met and fell in love, entitled “Just Like a Movie,” which ran at the local theater over a decade ago, he said.

With she, her son and husband taking countless trips throughout the years together, both across the country and the globe, Pugh was looking for something new to discover. Despite her frequent battles with her heart, requiring many visits to the hospital, her spirit never faltered, even near the end of her life.

“She just loved life,” Paul said.

Even after her passing, she had one last thing to give back — her own body, which she donated to the University of Michigan Medical School for research.

In lieu of a traditional service, Pugh’s family plans on having a celebration of her life at their home in Dowagiac, on Aug. 1. Many of her friends from across the county has already said they plan on attending, Paul said.

“She was such a bright shining light,” he said. “She spread happiness wherever she was.”