Celebrate Cathy Thrasher's Retirement

This campaign has concluded, but if you would like to still make a gift to support the Cathy Thrasher Scholarship and Student Support Fund, please click here.

Cathy Thrasher retired from Watkins Health Center at the University Of Kansas (KU) on December 31, 2020. She was employed at Watkins for over 36 years and served thousands of KU students during her time on campus. Along with serving the student body as a pharmacist and eventually the pharmacist in charge, she also was a faculty/staff employee of the University Of Kansas School Of Pharmacy. Her most recent duty was monitoring all the vaccination requirements for pharmacy students on the Lawrence campus. 

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Cathy’s legacy at Watkins Health Center will carry on for decades to come. Her love for the job and university was apparent. Her cheerful attitude created an enjoyable learning environment for anyone that worked with her. As a preceptor, she devoted much of her time to pharmacy students, allowing them to put into practice the skills they learned in the classroom. She created an atmosphere that allowed the students to focus their time and energy on patient-centered pharmacy functions such as counseling. Cathy’s positive attitude and commitment to students has impacted many pharmacist’s lives across the state of Kansas and nation. In addition to her work at Watkins Health Center, Cathy has remained one of the most avid fans of KU athletics. She is a member of the Hardwood Club and can frequently be seen at the various athletics venues around campus cheering on her Jayhawks. Cathy and her husband Greg have held season football, volleyball, and men’s and women’s basketball tickets for many years. To demonstrate her devotion, Cathy has missed less than five home football games from 1970 to 2019. 

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Cathy’s loyalty and dedication to Watkins, the School of Pharmacy, various KU athletics teams, and the university as a whole has left a tremendous impact on so many in the KU community over the past 36 years. 

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Please consider honoring Cathy by contributing to the Cathy Thrasher Pharmacy Scholarship to help the future generations of pharmacists much like she has done during her time on Mount Oread.

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A farewell letter from Cathy:

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Please enjoy these fun memories:

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