Monika Nakamura Kriechbaum was born February 21, 1948, and died April 10, 2024, after a brief illness. She was born in Berlin, Germany, and spent most of her first 12 years there. She graduated Burges High School in El Paso, Texas, in 1966, having been a member of the Stampede staff, Future Nurses of America (historian), the BHS marching band as a drummer, and the National Honor Society. She graduated from Texas Women’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1970. In 1976, she and Victor Kriechbaum, a 1967 Burges HS graduate, were wed at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in El Paso.
Monika’s interests were many and broad. All of Monika’s activities were done with enthusiasm, joy, and intent. She demanded excellence from herself and expected the same from others, as well.
Monika was very active in both her sons’ scouting activities in Circle Ten Council and the Order of the Arrow. Michael and Ryan became Eagle Scouts through their efforts and encouragement from Monika and Victor. Monika continuously sought knowledge and information, always expanding her knowledge and understanding of the world around her. One passion was Native American culture, participating in Powwows, interest in women’s and men’s dance, dance clothes and the making of them. She has been widely accepted in Native American communities across Texas and Oklahoma. Ultimately, Monika made several sets of Native American dance clothes in the plains Indian style; sang with Texas Connection, a southern Native American Drum group, for 15 years; was the Native American advisor for Mikanakawa Lodge for 10 years; and taught beading at several National Order of the Arrow Conferences and at the National Jamboree. Monika was also a medic at the National Jamboree and the camp nurse every summer for the past 20 years at various Circle Ten camps.
Family was important to Monika throughout her life although her “family” was an extended one, encompassing surrogate parents, the Kriechbaum clan, the Nakamura clan, hundreds of Boy Scouts, and numerous native American friends. Monika made many friends and maintained contact with them. For the last 18+ years, the McKinney Kriechbaum family held a weekly dinner, usually at home on Woodlawn Road, where we have gathered to enjoy good food and keep up with family activities. It has been one of the joys of life. For roughly 20 years the extended Nakamura family gathered every three years at a neutral site for a week of fun and “home” cooked family dinners and nightly pounce tournaments. Annual Kriechbaum vacations became a treasured tradition, too. These have included trips to London, Germany, and Japan, in addition to various domestic vacations.
She loved horses, rode through her teen years in El Paso, advancing to dressage and three-day competitions after college, then becoming a whip for the La Jolla Fox Hunt Club in San Diego. California, where she rode her horse, Dino, at breakneck speeds up and down the arroyos surrounding San Diego while simultaneously wielding her ten-foot whip to keep the hounds in line as they pursued the coyote (there weren’t a lot of fox around).
After passing the nursing bar in1970, Monika applied her nursing skills daily her entire life. Whether in a hospital, home, school, doctor’s office, on vacation, at a BSA National Order of the Arrow conference or National Jamboree, at a Society of Geophysicists annual meeting, or any place you can name, Monika always cared for and helped people. One of Monika’s God-given talents was that complete strangers often shared their life stories, including their medical problems, with her.
Another of her avid interests was music. She acquired a vast knowledge of swing and the big band era from her dad, Wagnerian opera from her mother, and grew up with rock and roll and country western. Her sister-in-law,
Tevis, who played the piano, banjo, and fiddle, took Monika to a folk festival in Mountain Home, Arkansas, where she recommended Monika learn the hammer dulcimer. Subsequently, Monika bought a four-octave beginner’s dulcimer and found a teacher in Denton, and would take 1- or 2-hour lessons from about every month or three over approximately three years. Having mastered the beginner’s instrument, Monika bought an eight-octave hammer dulcimer which she then mastered. Monika would play with Tevis and Margaret at family gatherings, as well as helped form an acoustic band at St. Peter’s called Random Seating. They played at several local venues and at the church on occasion. Besides listening to and playing music, Monika sang alto in the St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church junior choir in El Paso and alto then tenor in the St. Peter’s McKinney adult choir.
Monika was a person of deep belief and faith, which sustained her life and guided her from the age of 6 when she sought out the chaplain on an Army base who happened to be an Episcopal priest. Monika explained her beliefs simply, saying, “I heard the story of Jesus Christ who gave his life for us, and I bought it.” She was a member of the junior Altar Guild at St. Christopher’s. She attended St. Thomas the Apostle in Dallas during nursing school, then Good Shepherd and Christ Church Cathedral in Houston after getting married. Monika was the head of the Altar Guild at Christ Church Cathedral when the altar was moved off the back wall so the dean of the cathedral could face the congregation during the consecration of the elements. Not long after the family joined St. Peter’s, Monika became the head of the St. Peter’s Altar Guild. Monika was one of the founders of the St. Peter’s Daughters of the King chapter, and always supported the youth programs and church camps, too.
Perhaps Monika’s most unique talent was that she could assess and evaluate any situation in a matter of minutes, then confidently express her thoughts and ideas succinctly and unequivocally.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday. May 11, 2024, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 511 Foote Street, McKinney Texas, 75069.