Teacher Judith Ann “Jana” Kuecken Staloch, who died Aug. 15 at age 64, was among those who escaped safely from the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. But only a year later, she felt the first twinges of what proved to be amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
A native of Madison, Wis., she moved to Colorado in the 1960s. She found clerical work at the Denver District Court while she earned a bachelor’s degree in child psychology from Metropolitan State College of Denver and later worked for social service programs in Jefferson and Arapahoe counties.
Staloch was in her 50s when she earned her teaching certificate, specializing in English as a second language. Though monolingual, Staloch became intrigued with the Denver area’s increasingly diverse population.
Her students included children from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Her innovative approach to teaching English combined props and visuals with textbooks.
She was at her morning ESL class at Columbine on April 20, 1999. Staloch was at the blackboard, correcting the grammar of a student’s sentence when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began firing their guns.
Staloch and her class locked the doors and huddled inside the room until SWAT teams swept through the building. She later wrote an account of that day but rarely spoke of the experience. She found the media coverage, and the subsequent anniversary reporting, deeply upsetting.
She was preparing for another year of teaching when she was diagnosed with ALS in August 2003. After a week or so of attempting to resume her class schedule, she conceded that the disease was too advanced and retired.
Staloch spent the rest of her life researching ALS and finding ways to counteract the relentlessly advancing symptoms. She ardently supported stem-cell research, convinced that it offered special hope for ALS patients.
During her final day, her 11-year-old Maltese dog, Skipper, remained at her feet, forsaking his customary bed in the Stalochs’ bedroom. He was sleeping alongside her when she died and refused to move until attendants arrived to take Staloch’s body away.
Survivors include husband Jim Staloch of Littleton; father Elmer Kuecken of Middleton, Wis.; daughters Deborah West of Fort Collins and Lucinda Ranney of Blue Mound, Wis.; sons Scott Voeck of Arvada and David Staloch of Parker; brothers Bill Kuecken of Windsor, Wis., and Bob Kuecken of Madison, Wis.; sisters Betty Coleman of St. Paul, Minn., Kathie Kuecken Lindsay of Salt Lake City, and Gail Doty of Mount Horeb, Wis.
The family suggests donations in Staloch’s name to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation and the Foundation Fighting Blindness, www.blindness.org.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
