Phyllis K. Siefker

Ms. Siefker died Friday, Aug. 2, 2002, at Research Medical Center, Kansas City, Mo., from lung and brain cancer and pneumonia. She moved to Lawrence in 1978.

She was born Sept. 14, 1941, in Indianapolis, the daughter of Arthur and Elizabeth (Miller) Siefker. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism from Indiana University and a master’s degree in communications studies from Kansas University in 1989.

Ms. Siefker was director of communications for the KU School of Business from fall 2000 to spring 2002. Prior to that, she was an organizational analyst and communications officer at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. She was director of strategic planning and director of corporate communications and graphics at Mast Advertising and Publishing in Overland Park for eight years. Her career included teaching high school English and college-level interpersonal communications, newspaper copy editing and reporting, pre-press work in the printing industry and consulting work on organizational efficiency.

Ms. Siefker wrote “Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men,” a history of Santa Claus going back 75,000 years, published in 1997.

She was a board member of the Kansas City American Society for Quality and a member of the League of Women Voters for many years. She also was a member of Centenary United Methodist Church, Lawrence.

She married Scott Nesbitt in 1969 and 1996. He survives of the home.

Other survivors include two sons, Brandt Nesbitt and Kurt Nesbitt, both of Lawrence; two sisters, Barbara Neff, Lawrence, and Carol Smith, Greensburg, Ind.; and a brother, Bob Siefker, Greenwood, Ind.

The family will receive friends from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at an open house at the home, 1539 W. 21st St.

The family suggests memorials to Kansas Lung Assn., or to American Cancer Society, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.