Sharon Moxley Obituary

Sharon Kay Moxley
July 13, 1939 - May 18, 2025
Our beloved Sharon, 85, passed away peacefully at her home in Santa Rosa on May 18 at 3:35 a.m., surrounded by her loving family.
She was born in Eureka, CA to George and Ruby Doers-Porter. Her childhood in the wilds of the Lost Coast of Whitethorn, CA is recounted in her award-winning memoir, Among the Silent Giants.
Sharon's lifelong love affair with horses started at the age of eight with Stardust, her first horse. Later as a teenager in Windsor, Ca, she trained, jumped, showed, barrel raced and even traded horses for some pocket cash. In later adulthood, she raced various award-winning Appaloosa horses, with Cari Double her top-winning champion racehorse.
Throughout her life, Sharon enthusiastically put all of herself into her various hobbies, volunteer services and jobs. Her first job at age 18 was as a psychiatric technician at Sonoma Development Center while supporting her attendance at Sonoma State University. After graduation, she worked with teenage offenders as a Sonoma County Probation Officer.
Graduate School at San Francisco State followed with a masters degree in child psychology and a 29-year career as a School Psychologist in Sonoma and Marin County schools. Her dedication to the welfare and advancement of the countless students and the communities Sharon worked with earned her the Association of School Psychologists award of Outstanding School Psychologist in California.
In addition, struggling herself with bi-polar illness, Sharon served as an early member and co-president of the local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). As a member of NAMI and as a school psychologist, she was an ardent educator in the various behavioral illnesses in children and adults. She especially fought against the stigma associated with behavioral illnesses and worked hard to raise awareness of these illnesses as biologically based, no different than our other biologically-based chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Throughout it all, even during her Parkinson's, diagnosed five and a half years ago, Sharon maintained the qualities that made her so effective in all her endeavors and that drew people to her: her folksy humor, charismatic charm, many talents and interests, and above all, a passionate drive to help others.
Her family will remember her as a huge influence to strive to be the very best in all their endeavors. Her nieces looked upon her as a role model for their own lives and admired her for her dedication in all she did and for her wisdom and intelligence.
Sharon is lovingly remembered by her wife Susan Miriam Dregely, her daughter Marilyn Sue Kay, her sister Karen Leslie Sharpe, and her nieces Antoinette, Nicole and Mariah and her grandnieces Monica, Erin, Megan and Ruby.
Attended by family and friends, funeral services were held on Friday, May 23rd at Eggen and Lance Chapel.