Remembering our Friends

By Rev. Christopher Corbally  |  16 Dec 2025  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

This month I was present at two events, a retirement and a funeral, which reminded me once again of how much our friends and neighbors at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) have meant to us.

Retired Sgt. Wade Boltinghouse receiving the Stars & Stripes at his officer retirement ceremony at Discovery Park last Friday, Dec. 5, 2025

On Friday, December 5, I took part in a retirement ceremony of Sgt. Wade Boltinghouse, in recognition of his outstanding 37 years of dedicated service with the University of Arizona Police Department (UAPD): first on campus, and in the last two dozen years as part of the special contingent at the Mt. Graham International Observatory. Our VATT observers and engineers on Mt. Graham knew him as “Wade;” he was always a friendly face on site. 

More than just a friendly face, however, he was all experience and action when needed to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone and everything. For instance, during the terrifying Frye Fire in the month of June 2017 he was on duty for long hours every day… except for the three days he was forced to rest by his chief! It was he who knew where everything was and so could direct the contingent of UAPD from Campus where best to go to help the smooth flow of firefighters and their equipment. As the fire incident came under control, Wade escorted Fr. Paul Gabor, SJ and a small contingent of our staff to assess damage to the VATT. Happily, they found nothing more significant than the embers of a few pine needles. 

At the retirement ceremony I presented Wade with a “Vatican Cube of the Nearby Stars”, which Fr. Gabor and I thought appropriate for a person with the radio call sign of “Star 1”. (At the beginning MGIO had as many as six “Star” officers from UAPD, but this gradually decreased to the one. Wade’s retirement means that all public safety concerns will now be managed by the Graham County Sheriff’s Office.)

Vatican Cube of the Nearby Stars

Wade will be much missed for his professionalism and calm demeanor, but we are happy that he now has a much deserved rest — at least as much as his grandchildren will allow!

The VATT (left) and the open Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) as seen from the roof of the Large Binocular Telescope. The small building with the green roof to the left of the SMT is the “cop shop” where Sgt. Wade Boltinghouse was stationed for many years.

The next day, Saturday morning December 6th, by kindness of Father Madhu George, the Pastor at St. Charles Church in San Carlos, I was privileged to celebrate the Funeral Mass for Karen Kitcheyan Jones. Karen was an Apache from the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, and she had long been struggling with pneumonia and related conditions. As told me by her daughter Leslie Long, Karen was a truly loving person who shared the warm spirit of her home with many on the Reservation, becoming a kind of second mother to them. She was full of stories and laughter.

I first met Karen in the early 1990s. Her father, Buck Kitcheyan, was a Chairman on the Reservation. With his wife, Geri, he was a “progressive Apache”, supporting the advantages that new technology could bring to the Tribe, including the University of Arizona’s project to build three telescopes on Mount Graham, including the VATT. 

Visit of our Apache friends to the Vatican, 1992. From left: Norma Jean Kinney, William Belvado, Geri Kitchenya, St. John Paul II, Vera Belvado, Karen Long, Delores Jaksich, Fr. George Coyne, Elizabeth Maggio.

Karen picked up her parents attitude, and so she was part of a group of five Apaches from the San Carlos Reservation who made a trip to Europe in 1992 with the then VO director, Fr. George Coyne, SJ. Two photos, shown here, are souvenirs of the trip. The first picture shows the group with Pope John Paul II; Karen is the one between the Pope and Fr. Coyne. The other picture is the obligatory one of the Apaches with two Swiss Guards. It was taken on another day when they toured Vatican City. Accompanying the Apaches, besides Fr. Coyne, were Delores Jaksich, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Safford AZ, and Elizabeth Maggio, the development officer of Steward Observatory at the time. 

Karen Long (left) and others from the San Carlos Apache nation visiting the Vatican, 1992.

Karen was a faithful Catholic, attending Mass as much as her illness allowed. I well remember in August 2011 accompanying the Diocese of Tucson’s Bishop, then Gerald Kicanas, to St. Charles Church in San Carlos for the confirmation of Karen’s daughter, Leslie, and the “re-commitment” of Karen herself. A delightful pot-luck lunch followed the service. So I can imagine Karen, now free from suffering, surrounded by departed family and friends and continuing such a gathering. 

About the Author

Rev. Christopher J. Corbally, S.J.

Fr. Corbally is an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group; his area of research is stellar spectroscopy and Human sentience. He a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the President of the National Committee for Astronomy in the Vatican City State for the International Astronomical Union. He was the president of the IAU’s Division IV (Stars), 2009-2012. He is a member of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, for which he was president from 1999-2002.

Click for full bio.

Related:

Rev. Christopher Corbally, SJ, remembers retired Sgt. Wade Boltinghouse and Karen Kitcheyan Jones of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.