• About UANews
• Sign up for News
• Resources for Media
• Calendar
• Contact Us

Kristopher A. Weatherly, a UA alum and associate director, died July 4.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
July 8, 2009

Kristopher A. Weatherly, a respected educator and administrator at The University of Arizona, has died. 

Weatherly, who was associate director of the University Teaching Center at the UA, had developed complications as a result of a medical condition. He passed July 4 at age 44.  

"We are all just in shock. We're just brokenhearted," said Terri Riffe, the University Teaching Center's director.

Weatherly has been described as a caring and concerned academic, husband and father who was devoted to both his family and work. Riffe said Weatherly was well respected and that students and "our staff love him."

Weatherly's memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. on July 12 in Casa Grande at the Cole and Maude Gardens Chapel, 525 N. Peart Road.

The University Teaching Center is in the process of collecting images for a slideshow that will be shown during the service. 

"All of Kris's family is touched and grateful for this demonstration of love and support to commemorate him as a man, father, husband, son, teacher, brother, nephew, colleague and friend," Lisa Neidich, a family friend noted on a memorial site at CarePages.com.

"This will be a lasting tribute to his brilliance, kindness and generosity that has over the years been felt not only locally, but globally by thousands," Neidich also noted.

He was born in Morton, Texas, Aug. 30, 1964, and his parents moved him and his siblings to Casa Grande, Ariz. in 1973.

He went on to receive an associate's degree at Central Arizona College before earning his marketing degree from Arizona State University in 1987. Weatherly graduated from the UA in 1995 with a doctoral degree in management and marketing through the Eller College of Management. 

He worked with the Walt Disney Company from 1995 to 2000 in the organizational development arena and held a number of other positions before serving as an associate professor at Campbellsville University for five years. He continued to teach Web-based courses as an adjunct professor with Campbellsville while at the UA. 

He took his associate director position with the UA in July 2007. During his tenure with the UA, Weatherly was also the principal and senior consultant for Weatherly & Associates, a management consulting firm he founded in 1986.

Riffe and Neidich said news of Weatherly's death was a shock as he had recently undergone a successful bone marrow transplant.

Earlier this year, Weatherly was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome – a type of bone marrow disorder that causes improperly formed blood cells.

The UA and Campbellsville University each collaborated with the Be The Match Registry, formerly the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, to hold donor drives in April. 

The intention of the drives was to help improve the pool of potential bone marrow donors avaialble to Weatherly and others across the nation. About 600 people attended the UA's first drive, which broke the national registry's record for a drive held during a two-day period in the U.S.

In an interview with UANews in May, Weatherly said he felt "blessed" by the support he had received and that he was hopeful. 

"Even if there is never a match found, the fact that more names are getting into the database could change somebody's life," Weatherly said in May. "This helps me feel like what I'm going through may not totally be in vain."

Then news came that a match had been found – a 22-year-old woman. Riffe said the woman and Weatherly never had the chance to meet. 

Weatherly is survived by his wife, Krista Kelly Weatherly; son, John Weatherly; father, Dean Weatherly; brother, Kevin Weatherly; and nieces and nephews, Bethany and Jennifer Benedict, Christopher and Audrey Petersen and Justin and Walker Weatherly.