When Hoang Murphy started as the CEO of People Serving People, his introduction to his community engagement manager, Kristy Wesson, was when she barged right into Murphy’s office.
“She came to aggressively welcome me and tell me how excited she was that I was starting,” Murphy said. “She let me know she’d be doing that often.”
Wesson, who prior to working for People Serving People spent eight years at NCJW Minnesota, died on March 3 at age 50, after battling cancer.
“In the very best sense, she was oppressively friendly,” Murphy said. “We’re going to miss how she really lit up every room that she barged into. She always said something funny to say, even about her cancer, the saddest thing in the world. She just brought a lot of brightness to every conversation.
“We were always one conversation away from HR, and people who knew Kristy well know what I’m talking about,” Murphy said. “‘Kristy, you’re putting us all on thin ice,’ but she skated on it beautifully.”
Said Beth Gendler, Wesson’s boss at NCJW Minnesota: “She would say whatever, and it was always the right thing…She was up front [with you]. It was one of her gifts and strengths.”
Murphy spoke about the way Wesson genuinely cared about people.
“I think everyone who works at nonprofit cares about people – that’s why they’re there,” he said. “But I think so much of caring and kindness is about noticing. And Kristy always took the time to notice you.”
Amanda Finman-Palmer, the advancement director at People Serving People, met Wesson when she was a board member at NCJW MN and recruited her to PSP. Wesson had been in treatment for her cancer when she started to work at People Serving People, and Finman-Palmer said Wesson gave the work her all.
“There were so many reasons that someone in her circumstance could have said, ‘You know what, I’m just not going to work. I’m going to focus on my kids. I’m going to focus on my health.’ There’s so many reasons and all of them are valid,” Finman-Palmer said. “She wanted to be here and chose to be here. No one was pushing. She would show up unless she absolutely could not. And we all knew that. She was just a really incredible human who wanted to make an impact.”
Wesson also always made sure that her co-workers were taking care of themselves.
“In any of any nonprofit space, the work is hard,” Finman-Palmer said. “We’re trying to make sure people have what they need. And she always reminded everyone that the work might be serious, but we don’t need to take ourselves seriously, and we can definitely have some fun while we’re doing this work and making an impact on other people’s lives.”
At NCJW, Wesson started as a part-time communications assistant in 2015 when her three boys were young. But during a staff reshuffle, she had the opportunity to take on a larger role and was promoted to director of communications and programs.
“She said ‘Do you think I could do this?’” Gendler recalled Wesson asking about the expanded role. “I was like, ‘There’s nothing Kristy Wesson can’t do. Of course you can do this.’”
In Wesson’s expanded role at NCJW, she led all the programming in the organization.
“You didn’t want to underestimate Kristy Wesson,” Gendler said. “I think because she was so fun and so funny and so vivacious and gorgeous and everything else that you just didn’t expect her to be also be brilliant. I mean, gosh, it would kind of be easy to hate her because she was kind of perfect.”
Finman-Palmer said that Wesson was “wildly skilled.”
“She had a breadth of experience in all types of different work: programming, media, communications, writing, event planning, you name it. All of those things are great,” she said. “But the thing that I still think about is she’s able to come into a situation and diffuse with [a] disarming humor to break the tension be able to move forward in a way that otherwise, maybe, we wouldn’t. Whether it’s coalition building or bringing on another organization or another program or a new partnership, how she brings folks along is unique.”
Said Gendler: “To talk to Kristy was to immediately be her best friend. She drew people in, and it didn’t matter if they were a United States senator or the kid in the hallway at the elementary school when we were volunteering. She was absolutely magnetic. What an honor to love, and be loved by, Kristy Wesson.”
Kristy Wesson is survived by her husband, Matt; her three sons Jake, Drew, and Zach Wesson, whose text messages frequented Kristy’s Instagram page coupled with a witty caption; her loving parents Dave DeRhodes and Ricki DeRhodes; and siblings and in-laws Doug DeRhodes, Arlene Wesson, Phil Wesson, Ben Wesson and Brittany Wesson. Her two nephews, Max and George Wesson, who were the perfect audience for her comedic timing. Kristy is preceded in death by her grandparents, Marian Klein, Richard Klein and Esther Mercer. Donations in her honor can be made to People Serving People.
A celebration of Kristy’s life will be held at Temple Israel on Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m. It is also available on Zoom.
