Katherine "Katie" Ford Horvath passed away at age 51 on January 29, 2025. She was born on July 7, 1973 to Craig and Libbet Horvath in Winfield, IL. She grew up in Traverse City, MI. She is preceded in death by her mother and grandparents. Katie is survived by her daughter Elayna Vyas of Traverse City, father Craig (Judy) Horvath of Fife Lake, MI, brother Chris Horvath of Traverse City, sister Julie (Jayson Spaulding) Horvath, Leaf and Jinta Spaulding of Honor, MI, uncle Peter Paullin of Adrian, MI, aunt Patricia Dinsmore of Raleigh, NC, uncle Gene Neil of Lowell, AR and many cousins.

Katie graduated from Traverse City Senior High. She earned her BSE in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and Juris Doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. Katie enjoyed that on any football Saturday, she usually had at least one win.

Katie began her career practicing patent law in Cincinnati, OH with Frost & Jacobs. She next moved to San Francisco, CA to practice law in Silicon Valley with Fish & Richardson. She went on to manage patent litigation for the Microsoft corporation in Redmond, WA. During this time, Katie volunteered with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. She founded the Microsoft Advocacy Academy. Katie was a guest lecturer at many law schools throughout the country on topics of intellectual property and trial skills.

After her daughter Elayna was born, Katie moved back to her hometown of Traverse City. She founded Bayshore Legal Services PC, and established a new business model of providing patent law services to other law firms "of counsel" for their clients. Now this service has become common.

After beating breast cancer, Katie joined the administration team of Munson Medical Center to open the Cowell Family Cancer Center. Specifically, Katie wanted our community to have integrative and supportive services that had not been available to her when she was a patient. She built business lines within Munson aimed to help patients deal with side effects of cancer treatment. For this, she was recognized with a leadership award in cancer prevention at U.S. Congress, and was an invited speaker several years on topics of cancer prevention during the National Congressional Cancer Prevention Caucus workshop.

Next Katie worked with local venture capital firm Boomerang Catapult, providing business strategy and legal advice to its portfolio clients. This led Katie to become CEO of Naveego, a data management company founded in Traverse City. Katie led Naveego to a successful acquisition by Aunalytics, a data analytics and IT services firm of South Bend, IN. At Aunalytics, Katie became the CMO and served on the executive team until retirement. She was proud to help create tech jobs in her hometown.

Katie was appointed by Governor Whitmer to the Michigan Womens Commission. She served on the Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Industrial & Operations Engineering department and as a member of the Michigan AI Task Force. She mentored startup companies for local tech incubator 20 Fathoms. She was a regular contributor to TCBN, invited speaker for numerous tech conferences and podcasts, and earned several national awards for her leadership in the tech industry.

Aside from professional achievements, Katie enjoyed sailing, boating and protecting our Great Lakes by serving on the board of FLOW (For Love of Water). She is Past Commodore of the Grand Traverse Yacht Club and served on the board of the Grand Traverse Yacht Club Foundation. Katie also enjoyed hiking, cooking, yoga, reading and traveling. She found peace in nature watching fireflies or waves on Lake Michigan, and feeling the silence that falling snow brings to the woods. Of all of her accomplishments, Katie is most proud of her daughter, Elayna.

A Traditional Irish Wake will be held in Katie's honor at the Grand Traverse Yacht Club, February 23, 2025 from Noon until 4pm.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Katie's memory may be made to FLOW (For Love of Water), or to the Cowell Family Cancer Center patient needs fund. Kindly share thoughts and memories with her family at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com .