Our beloved Kitty Petty
Marcheta (Kitty) Petty; Sept. 29, 1926 - May 7, 2005
Kitty Petty of Palo Alto, CA, founder and President of Kitty Petty ADD/LD Institute, passed away on Saturday, 7 May 2005. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma; her mother studied with Dr. Alfred Adler and was a successful marriage and family therapist, educator and lecturer, providing expert testimony in child custody cases in the Los Angeles County Family Court, appointed by the California Governor to serve on family committees, and was an advisor to President Reagan on family matters. Kitty obtained a B.A. in secondary education from USC, attended Lincoln University Law School and received a CA Paralegal certification in 1983. She raised a son and daughter as a single-parent, and became a professional volunteer after 55 years of management: 25 years in Silicon Valley electronics, 5 years traveling throughout 13 Western states for an international management education research and consulting corporation. She "retired" after 20 years in the legal profession, specializing in plaintiff personal injury, civil litigation in South Bay law firms.
She was adored by both her children, and by the many thousands of others whom she counseled and mentored as founder of KPI. When her grandson was diagnosed with ADHD and Learning Differences, she started studying these neurobiological syndromes and founded CHADD of Mid-Peninsula (now Silicon Valley CHADD) from her home in Palo Alto, in March 1992. Within two years she opened an office in Mountain View for what had become the largest CHADD chapter in the nation (out of 650 chapters,) and the only one maintaining an office outside of her home.
In 1995 Kitty founded Kitty Petty ADD/LD Institute (KPI), a 501(c)(3) public non-profit corporation, to provide additional services and programs which were needed, but not available to 400,000 Californians dealing with ADD/LD. under-served, economically disadvantaged, at-risk, and unable to afford proper treatment. This same year KPI was awarded a research grant of $150,000 from El Camino Hospital to administer an ADD diagnostic study, utilizing fMRI and SPECT scans at Stanford University Medical Center, which was completed in 1998 and published in the November 24, 1998 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, being the first study of prepubertal boys with ADD, utilizing both the SPECT scan and fMRI.
Kitty had volunteered over 80 hours a week since 1992 to: publish a quarterly newsletter, maintain a fast-growing database of over 9000 families for whom she had provided services, presented an annual topical symposium, monthly adult discussion/sharing and speaker meetings, maintains the largest ADD/LD multi-sensory lending library in the Bay Area, of over 750 titles of books, audio and video tapes, and the largest referral network in California, has testified before the CA State Assembly, Education Committee, provided expert testimony in Santa Clara and San Mateo County Juvenile and Family Courts on behalf of the population she served, developed an ADD/LD Forum within which clinicians, researchers and academicians exchange their knowledge and findings with one another, at El Camino Hospital, and provided personal consultations to families, children, teens and adults all over the world, helping them reach their true potential and enjoy a better life.
KPI's primary function is education: providing over 200 teacher inservice workshops at public, private and parochial schools, spoken at San Jose State University, De Anza College, conferences, hospitals, churches, American Red Cross, Big Brother/Big Sister, teen shelter staff, psychology interns, Kiwanis, Lions, Head Start, Foster Parents Groups, 4Cs, and to various city police departments and nonprofit agencies. To increase public awareness of ADD and LD, Kitty has appeared on radio, TV, and been interviewed for ADD-featured print media, and written a series of articles about ADD for a local women's newsmagazine. In June 2002, she was contracted by Japan's Nippon TV Production Company to be their consultant in locating a suitable filming site for a documentary to reflect the positive side of ADHD among school children. It was filmed at Stanbridge Academy, in Santa Clara, California, and was shown on a weekly Sunday family TV series in Japan to help families better understand, accept, and treat ADD/LD.
Kitty had been a Project Y.E.A. (Youth Education Advocate) for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation Department, being assigned youth to assist in seeing that their educational and social needs were met in school, and attending high school I.E.P. meetings. She also volunteered for the San Mateo County Juvenile Probation Department, providing ADD workshops to parents of children on probation, and received plaques for her excellence. She was selected to author "ADD for Dummies" for an East Coast publisher, and was recently listed in the National Register's "Who's Who" of Executives and Professionals, 2004 Edition.
She was adored by both her children and grandson. She is survived by a son, Clint, of Mountain View, and grandson, Nasim of New York City.
Remembrances
Were held on Saturday, 14 May 2005
Roller & Hapgood & Tinney
Palo Alto, CA
Kitty Petty of Palo Alto, CA, founder and President of Kitty Petty ADD/LD Institute, passed away on Saturday, 7 May 2005. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma; her mother studied with Dr. Alfred Adler and was a successful marriage and family therapist, educator and lecturer, providing expert testimony in child custody cases in the Los Angeles County Family Court, appointed by the California Governor to serve on family committees, and was an advisor to President Reagan on family matters. Kitty obtained a B.A. in secondary education from USC, attended Lincoln University Law School and received a CA Paralegal certification in 1983. She raised a son and daughter as a single-parent, and became a professional volunteer after 55 years of management: 25 years in Silicon Valley electronics, 5 years traveling throughout 13 Western states for an international management education research and consulting corporation. She "retired" after 20 years in the legal profession, specializing in plaintiff personal injury, civil litigation in South Bay law firms.
She was adored by both her children, and by the many thousands of others whom she counseled and mentored as founder of KPI. When her grandson was diagnosed with ADHD and Learning Differences, she started studying these neurobiological syndromes and founded CHADD of Mid-Peninsula (now Silicon Valley CHADD) from her home in Palo Alto, in March 1992. Within two years she opened an office in Mountain View for what had become the largest CHADD chapter in the nation (out of 650 chapters,) and the only one maintaining an office outside of her home.
In 1995 Kitty founded Kitty Petty ADD/LD Institute (KPI), a 501(c)(3) public non-profit corporation, to provide additional services and programs which were needed, but not available to 400,000 Californians dealing with ADD/LD. under-served, economically disadvantaged, at-risk, and unable to afford proper treatment. This same year KPI was awarded a research grant of $150,000 from El Camino Hospital to administer an ADD diagnostic study, utilizing fMRI and SPECT scans at Stanford University Medical Center, which was completed in 1998 and published in the November 24, 1998 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, being the first study of prepubertal boys with ADD, utilizing both the SPECT scan and fMRI.
Kitty had volunteered over 80 hours a week since 1992 to: publish a quarterly newsletter, maintain a fast-growing database of over 9000 families for whom she had provided services, presented an annual topical symposium, monthly adult discussion/sharing and speaker meetings, maintains the largest ADD/LD multi-sensory lending library in the Bay Area, of over 750 titles of books, audio and video tapes, and the largest referral network in California, has testified before the CA State Assembly, Education Committee, provided expert testimony in Santa Clara and San Mateo County Juvenile and Family Courts on behalf of the population she served, developed an ADD/LD Forum within which clinicians, researchers and academicians exchange their knowledge and findings with one another, at El Camino Hospital, and provided personal consultations to families, children, teens and adults all over the world, helping them reach their true potential and enjoy a better life.
KPI's primary function is education: providing over 200 teacher inservice workshops at public, private and parochial schools, spoken at San Jose State University, De Anza College, conferences, hospitals, churches, American Red Cross, Big Brother/Big Sister, teen shelter staff, psychology interns, Kiwanis, Lions, Head Start, Foster Parents Groups, 4Cs, and to various city police departments and nonprofit agencies. To increase public awareness of ADD and LD, Kitty has appeared on radio, TV, and been interviewed for ADD-featured print media, and written a series of articles about ADD for a local women's newsmagazine. In June 2002, she was contracted by Japan's Nippon TV Production Company to be their consultant in locating a suitable filming site for a documentary to reflect the positive side of ADHD among school children. It was filmed at Stanbridge Academy, in Santa Clara, California, and was shown on a weekly Sunday family TV series in Japan to help families better understand, accept, and treat ADD/LD.
Kitty had been a Project Y.E.A. (Youth Education Advocate) for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation Department, being assigned youth to assist in seeing that their educational and social needs were met in school, and attending high school I.E.P. meetings. She also volunteered for the San Mateo County Juvenile Probation Department, providing ADD workshops to parents of children on probation, and received plaques for her excellence. She was selected to author "ADD for Dummies" for an East Coast publisher, and was recently listed in the National Register's "Who's Who" of Executives and Professionals, 2004 Edition.
She was adored by both her children and grandson. She is survived by a son, Clint, of Mountain View, and grandson, Nasim of New York City.
Remembrances
Were held on Saturday, 14 May 2005
Roller & Hapgood & Tinney
Palo Alto, CA
