Mary Kimberly Churchill

Mary Kimberly Churchill died on June 5, 2026 in Duluth, Minnesota, surrounded by the love of family and friends.

Mary was born June 6, 1963, in Duluth. Mary was married to Richard Thomas Halligan, her partner in all things that mattered. Their life together was built on love, loyalty, humor, and grit. She was shaped by her family as well, especially her parents, Terence Virgil Churchill and Donna Maria Churchill. She built a life rooted in learning, service, and deep care for the people around her. A professor by both training and temperament, she spent her career preparing future teachers and took that responsibility seriously.

She believed good teaching required empathy, clarity, and honesty-and she modeled all three.

Mary began her professional life in Duluth Public Schools, where she worked with students and families for 25 years. That experience shaped her deeply and grounded her approach to education. She later earned her PhD and went on to teach at UW-Superior, where she spent 14 years preparing future educators. She was known for setting high expectations and offering steady support. Even as her health declined, she remained intellectually curious and committed to improving her work, planning course revisions well into what she hoped would be a sabbatical and the final chapter of her career.

Outside of work, Mary found pleasure in simple, tangible things-gardening, good food, day trips with Dick, books worth talking about, and the quiet satisfaction of learning something new. She especially loved camping with Dick and lifelong friends Teresa and Brian Olson at their seasonal site in Wascott.

She was thoughtful, direct, and not especially interested in pretending things were easier or prettier than they were.

Mary lived her final years with ALS, a disease that took much from her body but never her clarity, values, or sense of self. She met the reality of her illness with honesty and resolve, continuing to advocate for herself and care deeply about those she loved.

She was preceded in death by her father, Terence Virgil Churchill; her grandparents Roland and Lida Churchill; Mary Baer Grimm; and Roswell Grimm; her uncle and godfather, Patrick Churchill; her aunt and godmother, Arlene Grimwood; and Dick's parents, Thomas and Barbara Halligan.

She is survived by the family she dearly loved: her husband, Richard Halligan; her mother, Donna Churchill; her daughter, Bailey Maria Churchill; her son, Benjamin Caleb Luhm; her bonus daughter, Andrea (Cullen Cusick) Halligan; her brother, Timothy (Leslie) Churchill; her sister, Suzy (Roy) Hurin; her nephew, Jackson Churchill; her aunt, Katherine Churchill; her sisters-in-law, Lawrie (Patrick) Truman and Linda Halligan and others she loved and stayed connected with throughout her life. She valued relationships that were real, steady, and mutual, and she held those people close.

A funeral mass will be held 11AM, Thursday, June 11, 2026, at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Duluth, with visitation one hour prior to the service. Internment at a later date at Forest Hill Cemetery. Mary did not measure her life by accolades, but by whether she showed up, told the truth, and did her work with integrity-a fitting legacy for her loved ones and the generations of students she served.

The family would like to thank the teams at Solvay House, Essentia Health ALS Clinic, and Essentia Hospice for the care they provided.

Memorials, if desired:

Never Surrender

ALS Association

UW-Superior Scholarship