Katherine (Donna) Goehle
March 12, 1946-Sept. 21, 2026
Katherine Goehle passed peacefully at her home in Sonoma, Calif., on Sept. 21, 2026. She was the daughter of Herman Goehle and Genevieve Anderson Goehle and grew up in Luverne. After graduating from Luverne High School, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Arts degree in business administration from Southern Illinois University, and then a Ph.D. with a focus on marketing and international business from Michigan State University. Her dissertation was titled “The Locus of Decision Making in Multinational Corporations and Its Relationship to Subsidiary Performance.” Her dissertation later became the foundation of a book entitled “Decision Making in Multinational Corporations.” She was appointed assistant professor in Marketing and Transportation Administration at Michigan State University as of Sept. 1, 1979. While earning her degrees she had worked as a partner in the consulting firm P/G International, been an International Accountant Executive and European Tour Manager for University Travel Advisors and a National Representative for the Chi Omega Sorority. She later became an associate professor of World Business at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University where she helped develop the Corporate Executive Program. In her late forties Katherine underwent a personal transformation that led her to move to California and enroll in the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. There she earned a masters in Divinity in 2000. Though she originally thought to become a minister, she worked for a while at nonprofits and then retired.
Katherine will be remembered for her kindness, her wonderful sense of humor, her love of travel and her intelligence. She is survived by her longtime partner Mary Howland, her brother David and his wife Mary, her nephew’s wife Bridget Salmi, and four grandnephews as well as numerous cousins. Katherine died from Parkinson’s and was cremated. She will be interred at the Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery. Her celebration of life will be held on Nov. 27 in Sonoma.
Katherine through the years has supported WATER, Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual. If you would like to consider a donation in her name to WATER, the address is 8121 George Avenue, Suite 310, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
