[GSBN] The saddest news...

[Chug]

I'm saddened to hear of the passing of Judy, my thoughts are with Matts and 
Judy's family.

I was lucky enough to meet Judy back in 2004 and I will add to the list of 
those who also had the good fortune to meet and get to know her in saying 
what a special person she was and a real ambassador for other humans on this 
planet. If the so called leaders of this world only had a tiny fragment of 
Judy's outlook we would all be living in heaven.
A very sad loss, not only to the strawbale community, but to humanity as 
well.

Rest In Peace Judy
Chug
chug at strawbale-building.co.uk
http://www.strawbale-building.co.uk
.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <strawnet at aol.com>
To: <gsbn at sustainablesources.com>
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 8:16 PM
Subject: [GSBN] The saddest news...



Dear friends andcolleagues, I have very sad news to pass on. Our inspired 
and inspiring friend,colleague, leader, mentor and more, Judy Knox, lost her 
battle with cancerearly Saturday morning. Here is an excerpt from a message 
from her brother Timthat we received this morning:

On Christmas Eve we heard the heartbreakingnews that Judy has finally lost 
her battle with cancer.  Matts and Judy'sdaughter-in-law Donna were with her 
when she died peacefully at 1:45 am onSaturday.  Philip had been helping out 
for several days and he and hischildren were all in the house.  We 
understand that she had gone downhillvery fast in the previous two days – 
she had been having great troublebreathing and she and Matts had been 
considering a hospice, but then thingsspiraled downwards.

Forthose of you fortunate enough to have met Judy over the years, or who 
know whatan extraordinary human being she was, you will recognize the 
enormity of theloss, and at the same time what unimaginably good fortune to 
have had her inour lives and work for all these years. I first met Judy and 
Matts in 1991though I had been hearing about them for a couple of years 
prior to thatmeeting. They changed my life in innumerable ways.

Ratherthan try to find words to describe her this morning I realized that I 
couldshare an excerpt of the "Straw Bale DEtour" column I wrote for 
theWomen's Issue (#61) of The Last Straw journal - TLS being one of Judy's 
manycontributions to the world – about some of the women who have been 
instrumentalin creating and shaping the straw bale revival. This is the part 
related toJudy:

======
It is not a DEtour to take thetime to honor at least a few of the women who 
have helped lead the modernemergence of straw bale construction. It is, 
however, a very risky thing to dobecause I know that I leave out some who 
are worthy of mention, people whoeither never came to my attention or have 
slipped through the ever-more poroussieve of my memory. So apologies in 
advance to those not mentioned here, and pleasetrust that I have real 
gratitude for you and your contributions. I will name afew who I know helped 
open the door for many others who have been drawn intothe realm of straw 
bale and natural building.

I can't imagine starting withanyone other than Judy Knox, who I’m quite 
certain is responsible for thehumane and generous character of the straw 
bale revival. Judy came to aleadership role in the straw bale revival 
somewhat unwillingly, seeing it as adistraction from what she saw as the 
larger work she had been engaged in – acoherently integrated set of 
activities around the rights and well-being ofchildren, community 
empowerment, education, micro-economics, internationalrelations, 
environmental stewardship and more. When the New York Times put anarticle 
about straw bale building and Judy and Matts Myhrman (her husband 
andco-conspirator in their little business that emerged from all this, Out 
OnBale) on the front page of a section of the Sunday Times, the world 
(literally)beat a path to their door with a flood of mail arriving daily and 
the phoneringing off the hook for months. As a result of the depth and 
breadth of herexperience and her commitment to action in service to larger 
ends, once sweptinto the strong and rising current of the revival, she 
realized that they wouldnot soon return to their former lives.

In her unique and powerful way,she saw straw bale construction as a vehicle 
to empower people, especiallywomen, to go, as she put it so clearly, "from 
'I can't' to 'I can!'"And it was her attention to the human and personal 
potential of this movement,that shifted the revival to being much more than 
about a building technique ormaterial, or a more environmentally responsible 
way to build. It was all ofthat, but she also nurtured a foundational aspect 
of the revival, helpingpeople see what they were capable of doing. She has 
always been on the lookoutfor champions—a champion of champions—seeking to 
pull people into their fullestpotential. She certainly had a big influence 
on me.

The structure of the Out On BaleWorkshops, which I was fortunate to be 
invited to attend and eventually toteach, paid as much attention to the 
process, and the possibilities emergingfrom the workshop participants, as to 
the importance of sharing the mostcurrent and best technical information 
available. As a result of Judy's focuson process, those workshops became a 
safe place for everyone to explorepossibilities about their own capacities 
and for each participant to sharetheir deepest feelings about what was most 
important to them. This was alsoabout building people and community. And 
thus the straw bale community wasseeded with a communitarian spirit and a 
generosity rare in building circles.Judy and Matts made it clear that this 
was a building system that was part ofthe commons.

The Last Straw grew out of a vision ofhaving a vehicle to expand that 
community and enable those of us in it andcoming into it, to take 
responsibility for guiding what we were creating withour ever-growing 
collective knowledge, which occasionally rose to the level ofwisdom. While 
Matts was tirelessly, inquisitively, brilliantly, and,thankfully, often 
hilariously exploring and working on the physical andtechnical and 
historical details, Judy was attending to the health andwell-being of the 
movement and all of us who were involved with it. Judy'sinitial and 
essential framing of the revival in terms of community and personalpotential 
carried forward and out as straw bale construction echoed out intothe rest 
of the world. I know how deeply her focus on these things affected methen 
and how it resonated in me and became part of who I am and how I do what Ido 
in the world, a gift for which I am profoundly grateful.



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