Eleanor Botha, M.D. (N ’48)

October 29, 1916 — May 14, 2023

Eleanor Botha (Elly / Ellie) (Angle) Kennedy of Greenwood Village, Colorado passed away on Mother’s Day, May 14 at the Inn at Greenwood Village.  She was 106.

A funeral mass will be held at St. Thomas More Catholic Church on Thursday, June 15, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.  Horan McConaty Funeral Service is handling funeral arrangements.

Eleanor was born in St. Paul, Minnesota to John and Anna Botha on October 29, 1916.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University  of Minnesota, continuing to the University of Minnesota Medical School to receive her M.D. with specialization in psychiatry and neurology.  Under her professional name, Dr. Botha, she worked in several roles at the University of Denver for 35 years, most of them with the DU Student Health Service.

To anyone who knew her, Eleanor demonstrated kindness, optimism and caring.  Still, there was one life-long and remarkable quality she possessed that inspired her family and friends, which was a profound and unceasing curiosity towards life and everything in it.  From her adolescence on, she always looked to see how things worked, how things fit, and how to take theory and develop practical application.  She never stopped learning, and always guided those with whom she spoke to do the same.

Eleanor is survived by her three children, Dr. Mark (Diane), Kathleen, and Maureen (Stephen), grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She is preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Thomas J. Kennedy.