Kristine Rose Desmond

Kristine Rose Desmond (née Quasius), aged 71, passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after 19 months with glioblastoma. Kris died as she lived—with grace, dignity, strength, clear-minded pragmatism, friends and family perpetually by her side, and a healthy dose of good humor.

Kris was born on September 20, 1954, as the third child of Gordon and Alyce Quasius of Sheboygan, WI. Her forebears were of hardy German stock – builders and brick masons, farmers and teachers – and she grew up on Superior Avenue in a 1960’s American idyll, with 99-cent records, corner stores and hopscotch, a family station wagon, and home-sewn clothes. She attended Jefferson Elementary and Sheboygan North High School, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Always with a knack for numbers, Kris became interested in computing in the early 1980s and learned to write code. She met her husband, Bill Desmond, at Pilot Systems, a Brookfield-based computer company. They settled in Pewaukee and later Waukesha, WI, where Kris led a 40+ year career developing point-of-sale restaurant software out of her attic office, in between volunteer activities and carpool runs.

Kris was a devoted wife and mother. She cared deeply for her family and was steady, grounded, and content. She and Bill built a home that was full of joy, laughter, music, freedom, games, politics, intellectual challenge, and always a family dog. She was modest and down-to-earth but also keenly perceptive and wise. She implored her kids to do their best but, above all, to be kind. Kris was strong and active – not in the way of running marathons or lifting weights, but in effortlessly managing a busy household, doing heavy-duty yardwork, lugging furniture up a flight of stairs on her own, or sewing epic Halloween costumes for her kids late into the night. She opened her doors to everyone – foreign exchange students, people without a place to go on Thanksgiving, hundreds of high schoolers on the last day of school, rowdy kids home from college (and the bars). Kris would unwind by spending time at the family cottage on Pigeon Lake, WI, which her parents built by hand in the year that she was born. At Pigeon Lake, she would go for pontoon boat rides with her sister Lynda, drink chardonnay, float in her innertube, play endless games of canasta, and sleep with the windows open in any weather.

Over her life, Kris built a wide set of friends and gave selflessly of her time and talents. She loved to play mahjong, but she especially loved the women she played with. She was particularly close with a group of mothers from her kids’ school, dubbed the “Mean Moms,” who have supported one another and laughed together for decades. She and Bill had monthly supper dates with friends (“The Finer Things Club”), and with a neighborhood group she frequented Waukesha’s finer establishments for “Dive Bar Tuesdays” (everyone home by 7pm). Kris was a faithful parishioner, chorister, and treasurer of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pewaukee, treasurer of the Kensington Lakes neighborhood association, and regular volunteer with the Waukesha Service Club. She was a longtime sponsor of the Karen refugee community in Southeastern Wisconsin, teaching countless recent immigrants to pass their driving tests, taking kids to school, accompanying others for their citizenship ceremonies or on college visits, even taking a group of young refugees on a cross-country road trip to see Washington, DC. Kris was a proud American who believed in the goodness of others and the value of democracy and civic decency.

Kris was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Bill (William Howard Desmond of Woodstock, IL). She is survived by their three children and seven grandchildren, William Gordon Desmond (m. Sarahjeet Singh, sons William and Dara, daughter Amrita) of Warren, VT; Margaret Rose Desmond (m. Francisco Lewis, daughter Thomasin and son Isidor) of Colchester, UK; and Samuel John Desmond (m. Emily Ayres Desmond, son Howard and daughter Dorothy) of Seattle, WA. She is further survived by her sister Lynda Pautz (m. the late William Pautz) of Pigeon Lake, WI, and brother Michael Quasius (m. Cathy Quasius) of Cedarburg, WI, as well as Bill’s brothers, Timothy Desmond (m. Sally Desmond) of Westlake Village, CA, and David Desmond of Fontana, WI.

Kris set a quiet example, but it spoke volumes about how to live a life of meaning. The depth of our sadness is commensurate with the love we shared with her and that she shared with so many.

A visitation will be held on Monday, June 22, from 1:30-3pm at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, N27W24000 Paul Court, Pewaukee, WI 53072, followed by a funeral service starting at 3pm. Family and friends are warmly invited to attend a reception at Kris’s home following the service. In lieu of flowers, her family would ask you to donate to the Waukesha Service Club or any other community non-profit. We would like to thank the staff of ProHealth Cancer Center and the hospice team for their competence and care. We would also like to recognize the critical role of publicly funded research which supported her treatment and the extended time it afforded us together.