AGNEW — Dorothea Hover-Kramer, a registered nurse, psychotherapist, author and artist, died of a heart attack Tuesday at Olympic Medical Center.
She was 72.
Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Pioneer Memorial Park clubhouse, 387 E. Washington St., Sequim. No public funeral is planned.
Hover-Kramer was a private-practice psychotherapist for more than 30 years. She penned nine books about energy therapies.
The Agnew woman served on the board of the North Olympic Land Trust and worked closely with several other local organizations.
She was a member of the Clallam County MoveOn Council and chaired the Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic’s wellness committee through 2011, in which she oversaw “WOW! Working on Wellness,” a community health education program.
‘Dynamic’
North Olympic Land Trust Board President Suzi Schuenemann said Hover-Kramer was a “dynamic” board member who brought “a lot of energy” to the nonprofit conservation organization.
“She had a positive outlook, and she was a good problem-solver,” Schuenemann said.
“We’re definitely going to miss her enthusiasm and her spirit, for all of us who worked with her and knew her.”
Cate Bendock said her close friend’s death came as a shock to those who knew her because Hover-Kramer was active and rarely ill.
“She was the picture of health,” Bendock said.
Healing Touch
In the 1970s, Hover-Kramer helped pioneer an energy therapy movement called Healing Touch, in which practitioners use their hands to support physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.
“She’s like one of the big movers and shakers around about it,” Bendock said.
“She traveled a lot, speaking and presenting and teaching.”
Hover-Kramer and her husband, Chuck Kramer, moved to the North Olympic Peninsula from southwest Oregon in 2008.
She was active in Friends of the Fields, the Sierra Club, a women’s hiking group and several other groups and organizations.
“She was very dynamic, no matter where she lived,” said Bendock, who met Hover-Kramer in Cave Junction, Ore., when they worked together in a learning-through-arts program.
“She just really encompassed life.”
In 2011, Hover-Kramer was a guest speaker at a Sequim forum called “The American Awakening: A Community Call to Action!,” which organizers described as a grass-roots effort to preserve and protect the public’s safety net, threatened by government cutbacks and privatization.
Hover-Kramer was committed to bringing insights from energy psychology to those facing the challenges and opportunities in the second half of their life, according a biography on her website, www.dorothealifeartist.com.
Association co-founder
She co-founded the international Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology in 1999.
Hover-Kramer was a pianist who played chamber music with small ensemble groups. Schuenemann said Hover-Kramer recently hosted a concert for about 30 people at her home near Finn Hall Farm.
“I think her personality added a lot to any organization she was involved with,” Schuenemann said.
Hover-Kramer also enjoyed painting landscapes. Her art was displayed at art shows and in art walks.
In addition to her husband, Hover-Kramer is survived by two adult daughters, a son and seven grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by a son, Bendock said.
Linde-Price Funeral Service of Sequim is in charge of arrangements.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
