Kathleen L. (Kathy) Trax, born March 29, 1952, passed away May 27, 2023 at the age of 71. Kathy was raised in Southfield, Michigan as the younger daughter of the late Katherine and Jack DeForest Stuart. Since 1998 she was the beloved life partner of Captain Luke Clyburn.
 
Kathy graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She worked as both a graphic and medical artist, and created endearing cartoons and animal portraits as well. She was also an outstanding potter, producing museum-quality ceramics.
 
Over the past 25 Kathy worked her way up through the ranks of the Navy Sea Cadet program to become a Lieutenant Commander of the Great Lakes Division of Sea Cadets. She served as the Executive Officer of the Research Vessel/Training ship Pride of Michigan.
 
With her love of water and adventure, Kathy became a PADI Master SCUBA Dive Instructor and also a SCUBA Dive Instructor for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. She worked with hundreds of young cadets, teaching them diving and leadership skills and the natural history of the Great Lakes. She served as a photographer for Great Lakes research projects and helped to make over a dozen underwater films featured on PBS and elsewhere. Her many contributions to research on drowned shorelines of the Great Lakes have helped scientists to better understand the history of these inland seas. As a side project in 2000, Kathy and Luke photographed the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.
 
To honor the life of Kathy Trax, a memorial service was held on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at the Huron Pointe Yacht Club in Harrison Township.
 
All of us associated with the Noble Odyssey Foundation and its programs will sorely miss her creativity, adventurous spirit, and compassion. Kathy’s final resting place next year will be an underwater cave that she discovered in the Straits of Mackinac, an area she loved so much.