Laurie Anne Honn-Adams, age 70 of Ventura, California passed away peacefully on February 2, 2023 surrounded by friends and family from complications caused by cryptococcal meningitis. Laurie was born in Detroit, Michigan to Emilia Csigi on May 1, 1952, and was adopted by Reese and Marie Honn also of the Detroit area.
She attended Groves High School in Birmingham, MI, then graduated from Western Michigan University in 1974 with a degree in teaching. She taught elementary grades in the Virginia Beach, Virginia public schools, but soon learned the value of experiential learning after attending an Outward Bound course and headed west to work in that field as a counselor. After breaking her leg rock climbing she returned to Virginia Beach where she worked for the Wilderness Challenge School and met her future husband, she later worked at Appalachian School of Experience in central Pennsylvania. Both programs were adaptive outward bound programs for at risk teens. She followed that by continuing using her counseling skills to help people struggling with schizophrenia.
In 1992 she graduated from Pratt Institute with a Masters of Professional Studies - Special Education (Art Therapy), and worked at the Children's Hospital in Norfolk Virginia as an Art Therapist. After moving to California with her husband Roger she returned to teaching first grade and specialized in reading for the Ventura Unified School District where she retired in 2018.
Laurie had a vivacious personality and made good friends everywhere she called home. She loved traveling the wilds of the world from the jungles of Peru to the Norwegian arctic. She especially loved the desert southwest, Yellowstone, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming where she enjoyed her vacation home in both summer and winter. She loved to dance, xc ski, hike, bike, walk with her dogs and just be in the wilds. She volunteered at the Ventura Botanical Gardens but had a special place in her heart for the animals at the Humane Society of Ventura County.
Laurie is survived by her husband of 43 years, Roger Adams of Ventura, CA, her brother Gregory Honn of Richmond, Virginia, her birth mother Emily Todd of Southfield MI, her many friends, and her two doggies Luke and Beau. Laurie is preceded in death by her adoptive parents, Reese and Marie Honn. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name may be made to the Humane Society of Ventura County, 402 Bryant St, Ojai, CA 93023; and/or to the Ventura Botanical Gardens 567 Poli St. Ventura, CA 93001.
A celebration of her life will be held at 10AM on Sunday, April 30, 2023 at the Summit Plateau at the Ventura Botanical Gardens. Google Maps Directions can be accessed via this link https://tinyurl.com/SummitPlateauDirections
More stories and photos about Laurie can be found on this link https://arcg.is/01LXiu
Arrangements are under the direction of the JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICE, Ventura.