Katherine Hoyt Price Blount

Dr. Katherine “Kit” Hoyt Price Blount reached apoapsis and departed this space-time continuum on Feb.5, 2020.

She was born on Sept. 20, 1951 in Rochester, N.Y.

Kit was an active planetary geologist and geomorphologist, and served on the inaugural NASA Mars mapping program throughout the 1990s.

Her academic degrees were earned at Wittenberg University (B.A., 1973), DePauw University (M.A., 1975) and Indiana State University (Ph.D., 1985).

She spent over 45 years teaching in higher education, holding academic positions at DePauw University, the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christie (TAMU-CC), Angelo State University and Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU-C), where she served as director of the LeoTeach program preparing future science and math teachers.

Among many other activities, she facilitated dozens of grant writing and mentoring workshops, including the formation of the National Science Foundation’s Texas Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (TxCETP), was director of the TAMU-CC Faculty Renaissance Center and was the curriculum designer for the Geographic Information Science degree at TAMU-CC. She served on or chaired the graduate committees for almost 30 M.S. students. Her grant writing efforts generated over $13 million in funding as principal investigator.

Her signature academic publication was the geologic map of the Dao and Harmakhis Valles regions of East Hellas on Mars, produced by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1998.

She left behind her best friend and husband, Grady Price Blount; four sons, Justin Alan Blount (Carrie) of Champaign, Ill., Christopher Michael Johnson of Brooklyn, N.Y., William Price Bridges (Kate) of Ft. Worth, Texas and Noah Hitchcock Blount of Commerce, Texas.

She had one daughter, Elizabeth Sinclair Blount of Commerce, Texas.

Surviving family members include Margie Myers Price of Westlake Village, Calif., Elizabeth Price Thomas (Roy) of Elyria, Ohio, James Drysdale Price of Ann arbor, Mich., Martha Hitchcock Price of Fairport, N.Y. and William Alexander Price (Alice) of Philadelphia, Pa.; as well as 13 nephews and nieces and three grandchildren.

She was preceded in her quietus by her parents, William Hoyt Price and Margaret Drysdale Price; and nephew, Benjamin Drysdale Price.

Kit changed the lives of everyone she touched. She was a devoted and loving mother, an intellectually challenging colleague, a tireless champion for first-generation college students and, most of all, an indefatigable and devoted friend.

A visitation will be held starting at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, with a memorial service immediately afterward. Her colleague, the Rev. LaVelle Hendricks, will be officiating at Jones-Walker & Son Funeral Home, 1209 Live Oak St., Commerce, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your local Girl Scouts of America council or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Sic itur ad astra.