Editor's note: This story was updated at 4:31 p.m. to add information about a scholarship set on Katy Koontz's honor.
From a young age, Katy Koontz was destined to be a Sooner.
Born and raised in Norman, Koontz attended OU and was a part of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. After earning her degree in public relations, she went on to work at United Way of Central Oklahoma for five years but later came back to her alma mater to work in OU Marketing and Communications.
“Her intro was always, ‘I’ve been at OU for … 10 years, but I feel like I’ve been at OU my entire life,’” said Chris Reed, a web manager for OU Marketing and Communications. “One of the biggest things to her was her OU pride and how much she cared about the university.”
On Oct. 6, Koontz died from a stroke at the age of 38. Her family held a service in her honor at Wildwood Community Church in Norman on Nov. 12.
Reed met Koontz in 2014 when Reed was hired as a National Weather Center librarian.
While new to Norman and OU, Reed had a passion for websites and took over the weather center and College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences websites. Because of this, she would often talk to Koontz, who was in charge of user support, about any questions or issues she had.
“In 2019, she’s the one that always did the (content management system) trainings. … I took her training, and it was amazing. I couldn’t get enough of it,” Reed said. “She and I had always been really cordial with one another, but we just kind of hit it off.”
In 2020, Koontz convinced Reed to apply for a full-time position working with her and David Hoecker, OU director of web services, as a web manager for marketing and communications.
For around six years, Koontz and Hoecker were the only ones on the web communications and marketing communications team. Hoecker said Koontz was talented with web programs and not only encouraged Koontz to be in the team but thought she would be a good manager as well.
“She is a fantastic person. Everything she did, she did wholeheartedly, and so anything that she was involved with, she was involved with 100%, and she really wanted to own anything that she was assigned,” Hoecker said.
Reed and Koontz first connected through their love of dogs, and Reed said their relationship grew immensely.
“I called us the dynamic duo,” Reed said. “I’ve always said this since the very beginning, if I could have a (group project partner) for the rest of my life, it would be Katy.”
Reed said they had a very close relationship, between carpooling, volunteering and working together. She described Koontz as someone who was funny, smart and always there for others.
“She was so easy to get along with. I could just talk to her about things. I didn’t have to hide anything from her,” Reed said. “She cared so much about other people.”
Along with her position in marketing and communications, Koontz created and taught a Gaylord College practicum since 2021. The practicum functions as an internal marketing team for the college.
Katelyn Foster, a public relations senior, was one of Koontz’s first students.
“They put a post — a little ad out on Instagram at the time — and I showed up,” Foster said. “No one else came.”
Foster and Koontz recruited five other students for the fall 2021 semester.
Now, there are nearly 20 students who take the class.
“Watching that first group of students, … she was so afraid,” Reed said. “She was like, ‘No one wants to take the class.’ The next semester, … it doubled that quickly.
“After that, she had so many people want to enroll that they had to cap it.”
Katy Koontz with students of Gaylord College in 2023.
In the class, Foster said students redid Gaylord College’s website, made connections with the alumni board and helped strengthen the relationship between alumni and students at Gaylord College.
Foster recalls the time she and Koontz attended the graduation of two students from the original class. With hugs and cheers from the stands of the Lloyd Noble Center, she said Koontz always made people feel celebrated and loved.
More than a professor, Foster said Koontz was like a close mentor.
“She touched people’s lives in a way I haven’t seen anybody else do during my time here at OU,” Foster said. “She became one of my biggest supporters, and this was the case for many of us students in the class.”
Now, her family set a scholarship in her honor. The scholarship website reads the practicum and scholarship are a testament of the person she was and the mark she left at OU.
At the beginning of the year, Koontz was transferred off the web team and given a position as a marketing strategist.
“This was one of her quotes to me. She said, ‘We were really such an efficient and bomb team,’” Reed said, reading one of Koontz's texts after she left the team. “It was challenging because she and I had roomed together for so long. … That part was tough.”
Hoecker said he will miss Koontz’s spirit, both personally and professionally. He said she was very passionate and wanted everything she did to be as good as possible.
From professional to personal issues, Reed said she learned many things from Koontz.
“She taught me to not take things personally. … She made me take a step back and realize we’re all human; maybe they’re having a bad day or something, and it’s OK,” Reed said. “I just feel like she taught me so much.”
Reed said she will miss Koontz’s passion for helping others, her advice, sense of humor and great personality.
“She was my guardian angel. She came along at a time in my life when I needed that,” Reed said. “Everyone needs to know how amazing she was, and the more that can know her story, the better it is.”
Foster said Koontz always gave her students tools to grow and become better communicators and will never forget the love she had for them.
“What I will miss most about Katy is just the contagious light that she was in any organization she was a part of. She inspired others to be the best versions of themselves, …” Foster said. “She was our glue in our practicum, but in everything she was a part of, she was a leader.
“I think she’s just a presence and, for who she was, everything about her will be greatly missed.”
Koontz is survived by her husband, Jon Koontz, and her dogs, Scout, Molly, Angel Tilly and Sully.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Kylie Caldwell, Grace Rhodes and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
