Colleen Kirst: September 14, 1924 – December 21, 2023

Beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother Colleen Kirst passed peacefully into heaven on December 21, 2023, at the age of 99. A brilliant, beautiful woman inside and out, Colleen devoted her life to God, family, country, and community. Colleen’s life history is a classic American story of faith and hard work resulting in success, but she was always self-effacing about her accomplishments.

Born Aleta Collins in Fayetteville, Arkansas on September 14, 1924, Colleen was the last (presumably) child born into a family of several children, but in such poverty that her birth parents literally couldn’t afford another mouth to feed. Aleta was legally adopted as an infant by Beryl and Elsie Phipps, who changed her name to Virginia Colleen. Within a year or so they moved their little family to a fresh start in Kansas City, Missouri.

Growing up in Kansas City, Colleen’s intelligence was noticeable to all her teachers.

She was Valedictorian of her junior high school, but it was at Westport High School that Colleen really blossomed. She was elected beauty queen by two different boys’ clubs, but scholastics were her main interest. Colleen was on track to be the valedictorian of her graduating class of approximately 500 students, when her father accepted a job at the McDonnell Douglas factory in Southern California. Not wanting to forego her hard-earned honor to be valedictorian, Colleen stayed in Kansas City, living with family friends during her senior year of high school. At age 16, she showed her independent streak by legally changing her own name, removing “Virginia” from her moniker. Colleen detested the Southern custom of double first names, so was determined to drop that from her identity.

A teacher/mentor at Westport High School encouraged Colleen to apply for a prestigious national college scholarship, of which only four were awarded in the entire United States. It was by winning this scholarship that Colleen received a completely underwritten four-year education at the University of Southern California. In addition, Colleen received a scholarship from The Ebell of Los Angeles, which provided her a stipend of twenty dollars per month; a life-enhancing amount for a young co-ed during the challenging years of World War II.

Colleen’s organizational ability was legendary at USC, where she became a BWOC (Big Woman on Campus) by assuming leadership roles in virtually every organization with which she was involved.

During her junior year, Colleen was elected president of the Amazons (one of the oldest service organizations on campus), a junior-senior women’s honorary service organization limited to 40 members. (In 1969, the Amazons changed their name to USC Helenes.) Inspired by Helen of Troy, its members serve as the official hostesses of the university, and honor Trojan traditions through three pillars: service to the community, school spirit, and sisterhood.

Also in her junior year, Colleen was elected president of the junior women’s honorary service organization, Spooks and Spokes. This invitational organization was limited to 15 women who maintained a high grade point average while demonstrating a record of activity leadership in campus organizations. As president, Colleen organized pom-pom sale fundraisers (for students who intended to sit in the rooting section of the Rose Bowl football game) and oversaw hostess training and sponsorship of the wartime SC servicemen’s canteen known as the USS Poopdeck.

During her senior year, Colleen was elected president of Mortar Board, a senior women’s scholastic and achievement honorary group. One of Colleen’s brainstorms as president was “Stop Week,” which was adopted by the entire university. As Colleen explained in a newspaper article, “The purpose of this plan is to eliminate all social events so that the week may be spent in preparation for final examinations.” Even publication of the Daily Trojan newspaper was suspended during Stop Week, in an effort to alleviate the usual cramming during finals. The proposal contained one welcome exception, however: Saturday night social events could still be held! Colleen also led Mortar Board in sponsoring a new campus group, the Tro-eds, geared to help freshmen women become involved in university life, and she served as the Tro-ed advisor, conducting all the meetings for this new group.

As a member of the AWS Cabinet, Colleen was one of the student leaders who met weekly to coordinate USC’s collegiate activities of all kinds. One contemporary newspaper article noted her customary habit during meetings: “Colleen Phipps eats Cheez-Its.”

Colleen was elected to membership in Alpha Kappa Delta (the national honorary sociology fraternity) as well as Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lamba Delta, and Phi Kappa Phi (the national all-university honorary scholastic organization). She was a member of the Junior Class Council, the Senior Class Council, the USC Student Senate, served as resident counselor at Willard Hall (a new women’s dormitory), served as Activities Editor for El Rodeo (the USC annual), was elected a Queen of the 1944 El Rodeo, and was chosen as a USC student delegate to the annual YMCA-YWCA Asilomar Conference. She was award chairman for the AWS Recognition Assembly, which replaced the usual banquet because of wartime food shortages.

Colleen also became part of the Greek system when she was one of the founding members of Beta Pi chapter of Alpha Phi sorority, which boasted an inaugural pledge class of 22 women. Colleen was one of only ten women who, upon her USC graduation, was awarded an illuminated scroll in tribute to her service to the university.

She graduated magna cum laude in 1945 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, with a minor in Psychology. A satirical article in the Daily Trojan regarding resolutions of the Class of ’45 noted, “Colleen Phipps, activity woman, will shy away from organizations of all types until 10 years after graduation.”

Colleen loved music and dancing to the legendary big band orchestras that regularly played live in Los Angeles, sometimes even on the USC campus. The Hollywood Palladium and Cocoanut Grove were popular venues, where she danced to favorites such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Stan Kenton, the Andrews Sisters, and singers Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. She kept a meticulously curated collection of 45 rpm records, each held in its own carefully labeled sleeve.

After graduating from USC, Colleen embarked on her professional career with a job she loved at Westcraft Trailers. However, she was fixed up on a blind date with another USC grad, Phil Kirst, who had been equally involved in men’s campus life before having his college career interrupted by his officer commission in the U.S. Navy. After serving his country during World War II in the Philippines, Phil had returned to USC to complete his education, and was realizing his dream of starting the Philip P. Kirst Company, Builders/Developers.

It was a date that changed Colleen’s trajectory from career woman to wife and mother. She and Phil were married at Mission Santa Barbara in 1947, and established their home in La Cañada, where Phil’s family had been pioneer ranchers. Phil built their family home on land that had once been part of the Rancho de La Cañada Spanish land grant, about 600 acres of which had been purchased by Phil’s grandfather Nicholas Kirst around 1901. It was there that Colleen and Phil welcomed five children into their family home on Gould Avenue, the same street that bisected the Kirst Ranch where Phil had been born years before. Their marriage lasted 68 years, until Phil’s passing in 2015.

Colleen loved babies, doted on her children whom she reared in love and fearlessness, and gathered her family around the table for her delicious home-cooked dinners every evening. Taco night was a favorite, as Colleen had learned the taco recipe taught to her mother-in-law Gertrude Kirst in the early 1920s by Manuel, a long-time ranch hand on the Kirst Ranch. Current events and politics were a common subject at the dinner table, as Colleen and Phil were patriotic Americans who loved their country and were keenly interested in preserving its freedoms. Never seeming to tire of the task, over the years Colleen packed thousands of school lunches in brown bags for each child every morning, every sandwich as carefully wrapped in waxed paper as any Christmas gift, each sack labeled with their names in her perfect printing. Colleen loved to lavish gifts upon her children at Christmas, in reaction to her sad experience as a child during the Great Depression, when money was so tight that one year all she found under her Christmas tree was a ten-cent diary. Colleen learned to horseback ride when she married Phil, and family trail rides on Sundays were a common ritual.

As loyal members of the Trojan Family, Colleen and Phil continued their involvement with their alma mater throughout their lives. Starting in 1950, they began serving on the Reunion of the Forties Committee, which every five years held elaborate weekend-long reunions for all USC graduating classes of the 1940s. This group eventually morphed into the Half Century Trojans, on which both Colleen and Phil served on the board.

Colleen served as President of the Inter-Sorority Mother’s Club, and they were both so proud when their daughters Nancy and Lynn, and then grandson Eric graduated from USC. As longtime members of the USC Presidential Associates, they loved attending Trojan football games, where for many years they maintained 50-yard-line seats in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In 2007, the USC Alumni Association and Half Century Trojan board presented both Colleen and Phil the USC Distinguished Service Award. They were benefactors of the USC Norris Cancer Center and benefitted personally from its cutting-edge medical advances. They also established the Philip P. Kirst and Colleen Kirst Endowed Scholarship, which grants scholarships to USC students who fall into the “middle class” category, thereby disqualifying them from low-income aid. Their generosity enables five students every year to achieve their goal of graduating from USC.

Colleen and Phil loved Santa Barbara; they bought ranch property in Montecito in 1960 to build their hacienda-style dream home. However, Phil’s business kept them tied to La Cañada longer than they intended. They were finally able to move into La Pradera in 1974, and it was on this Montecito property that both Phil and Colleen lived out their lives. They established many new friendships through their shared interests of church, the horse world when Phil served as president of the Montecito Trails Foundation, tennis friends at Knowlwood Tennis Club, and golf friends at Birnam Wood Golf Club. Colleen learned to play bridge when she joined The Little Town Club and enjoyed weekly games with her women friends there.

Colleen and Phil shared a love of travel, and together visited countries all over the world. They were particularly fond of Mexico and Hawaii, making almost annual trips to both locations. They participated on several people-to-people tennis trips, making personal friends in several host countries that they would later visit on private trips.

They generously treated their children to numerous family vacations, especially on holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

Colleen had artistic talent that was never fully realized, due to her selfless commitment to family and volunteer work. She took up knitting in the 1960s, creating elegant, knitted suits and dresses that she wore with her great style. In her late 90s, when confined to a wheelchair, Colleen discovered coloring books. She would sit for hours filling page after page with her extraordinary sense of color combinations, picking just the right shade from her set of 120 colored pencils.

Faith was the most important factor in Colleen’s life. She converted to Catholicism in order to marry Phil. They worshiped at Holy Redeemer parish in Montrose, which was quickly outgrowing its church in the post-war baby boom. As energetic young parishioners, they were asked to lead a few other couples in establishing a new church and elementary school in La Cañada called St. Bede the Venerable. Colleen was president of the Altar Guild both at this church and later at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, their new parish in Montecito. Also at Mount Carmel, Colleen chaired several Christmas galas, and voluntarily served as a lector for 32 years, and lector scheduler for 17 years. She was a founding board member of Villa Majella, a home for unwed mothers.

As Colleen’s Faith in the Lord grew, so did her disenchantment with the legalism and corruption of the Catholic church. Her last years were spent in a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, which she celebrated in the Eucharist and private prayer, while consciously ignoring what she believed were the extraneous trappings of Catholicism.

Colleen was predeceased by her parents, her husband Philip Kirst (1924-2015), her daughter Nancy Kirst (1950-2011), and her son-in-law Lynn Robert Matteson, PhD (1939-2015), who was married to her daughter Lynn Kirst. Colleen is survived by her son Peter J. Kirst (Jodi) of Lovell, Wyoming; daughter Christine Gerhardt (Ron) of Blaine, Washington; daughter Anne Sedgwick (Jonathan) of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and daughter Lynn Kirst of Montecito, who dedicated the last ten years to serving as her mother’s primary caregiver. Colleen is also survived by five grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Her life was one of profound love, Christian faith, gentle influence, and timeless inspiration, which God rewarded with a peaceful, painless transition from her earthly body to eternal glory with Him.

Colleen’s funeral will be held at 11:30 am in the chapel at Santa Barbara Cemetery, followed by interment of her urn at the nearby gravesite shared with her late husband. This celebration of Colleen’s life and joyous entry into heaven will be officiated by Tommy Schneider, senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara.