Sharon Kay Haywood

Sharon was born on March 8th, 1948, in Brookfield, Missouri, to Irene and Ivan (“Cotton”) Richardson. The youngest of three siblings, she had two older brothers, Don and Terry. At the age of 12, the family moved to Southern California, where Sharon graduated from La Crescenta High School.

Sharon married Bob VanderKlish and their son, Peter VanderKlish, was born in1965. While raising Pete, Sharon was a model in the Los Angeles area, until the family moved to the Boston, Massachusetts, area, where Sharon was a model for Polaroid and had the privilege of being photographed by Ansel Adams and Yousuf Karsch.

On moving back to Southern California, Sharon, Bob and Pete had the misfortune of living close to the epicenter of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, a traumatic experience for the family, that never left her. The family moved to Laguna Hills, and Sharon trained as a Registered Nurse, completing the necessary education and training at Saddleback College, Cal State University Long Beach and Saddleback Hospital; she completed her RN licensing requirements with flying colors (of course!). A consummate professional, she renewed her license regularly, and retained it well into retirement.

Her marriage to Bob did not survive, but Sharon and Bob, and Bob’s second wife Suzie, remained life-long friends.

In the late 1970’s, Sharon took up a position as the health and safety nurse at Burroughs Corporation’s Mission Viejo hardware and software manufacturing plant. There, in May 1979, she met Beck Haywood, who was on a temporary assignment from the UK, but was to become her second husband and who never left her. Beck had fractured his right wrist playing frisbee football on a weekend, and Sharon offered him a bunch of safety leaflets. They married on July 9th, 1983.

Sharon was so proud of Pete, who graduated from Laguna Hills High School in 1983 and went on to earn his doctorate in neuroscience at the University of California, Irvine.

Upon leaving Burroughs Corporation in 1985, Sharon embarked on consulting positions with a rural hospital corporation and, later, a health insurance company, before taking up an Environmental Health and Safety position at the University of California, Irvine. Later, she moved to the UCI Medical Center, where she became instrumental in establishing the Occupational Health Group and employee health clinics. She also earned certification in California Workers’ Compensation Administration. She retired in June 2005, and undertook a consulting project at Chapman University before finally retiring for good.

Pete married Veronica Galvan, a fellow UCI neuroscience graduate, in 2006, and they gave Sharon two beautiful granddaughters, Sophia and Hannah; Sharon was a proud and loving grandmother.

Sharon and Beck moved to Laguna Beach in 1988. She served as the president of their Neighborhood Association for a brief period, and volunteered at the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter for many years. As a result of the latter, the household became a loving home for several delightful rescue dogs as well as a temporary foster home for a number of other dogs. It was frequently joked that a chihuahua could have never found a better life than in the home Sharon gave them.

Sharon loved entertaining family, friends and fellow employees at her home, cooking wonderful meals and desserts, and devising entertaining puzzles for her Christmas cookie exchange parties. She also enjoyed many creative pursuits in which her innate talents and keen sense for the aesthetic shone through, including: sewing, needlepoint, quilting, crocheting items on road trips with Beck (to give to friends who had relocated to distant parts), gardening and jewelry making. She created beautiful earrings, bracelets and necklaces, which she gave to friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

Over the years, the entire family, including Bob and Suzie, enjoyed several vacations together in Hawaii and Santa Barbara. Sharon and Beck also enjoyed several vacations with Beck’s sister Bronwen and brother-in-law Mervyn, both in the UK and the USA.

Sharon had many exceptional qualities – beauty, broad intelligence, quick wit, a grand sense of fun, heartfelt generosity, and effusive compassion and love for others. She helped so many in so many ways. She always offered kindness and empathy to those in need of comfort or advice. As a result, she had many lifelong friends, lasting 40 years or more. She will be sorely missed, but always lovingly remembered.