Remembering Gretchen Noah

A remarkable friend has been taken too soon

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to you and your families. If you are in Davis on New Year’s Eve, I invite you to join us for a pub quiz. We will also be counting down the ball drop in New York at 9 p.m., with a free pilsner toast provided by Sudwerk staff.

Today I am thinking about 2025 experiences, accomplishments, reconnections, and losses.

Most of my heroes (many of them also mentors) are older than me, but one exception would be my friend Gretchen Noah, a remarkable friend who we lost to brain cancer earlier this month.

My wife Kate was very close with Gretchen, for she and Gretchen ran the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation together, laughing through many formal and informal meetings on the phone, via Zoom, and in person.

To honor my friend Gretchen, whose funeral mass took place this morning, I am including below both what Kate wrote about her friend, followed by a poem I wrote that I recorded and which was played at the funeral service last night.

Treasure your time with your loved ones, both tonight and on every day of the years to come.

Dr. Andy

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From Kate Duren.

I am heartbroken to share the news of the death of my dear friend, Gretchen Noah.

Gretchen and I met about 18 years ago when she called me on our landline phone, having tracked down my number after reading something I had written in a Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation newsletter about Jukie. We bonded instantly over her search for a diagnosis for her son. The Mayo Clinic had incorrectly ruled out SLO, but Gretchen felt her boy looked and seemed so much like my Jukie. I supported her and advised her on where and how to proceed to get the correct diagnosis. She did — and, of course, her son did have Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, just as we suspected.

We talked late into the evening that night and became fast friends. Gretchen was like that — warm, engaging, and always quick to find the humor in life.

We chatted on the phone regularly, and a year or two later she flew from her home in Fargo, ND, to surprise me at my home in Davis, CA. She had come to attend the Oscar party I was throwing that weekend. When I answered the door, I thought she was the stranger coming to look at a cabinet I was selling. I didn’t recognize her until she silently removed her sunglasses and gave me the biggest Gretchen smile. We stood hugging and crying on my doorstep until I finally remembered to invite her inside.

Thirteen years ago, we began working together — she as president and I as vice president of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation. We were a perfect match, with opposite but complementary skills. She handled the business side; I managed communications, media, and family support. We both felt we were exactly where we were meant to be.

Gretchen often said that God brought us together. We shared a deep sense of purpose and a desire to help families affected by Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome in every way possible. And anyone who knew Gretchen knows she made it fun. We worked hard, and we laughed often. I will miss her laughter and her smile more than words can say.

I have so many fond memories of Gretchen and our time together. We traveled for work to San Diego, New Orleans, and Germany, and planned and hosted SLOF conferences in Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Portland, Denver, and Cincinnati. I visited her lake house in Minnesota, filled with Gretchen’s unmistakable charm. We met up in so many cities, always making time to explore the local cuisine and culture. Gretchen truly loved life.

It feels impossible that such a strong, positive force in the world is gone. It was a joyful privilege and an honor to work alongside Gretchen all these years, and so many of us are enriched and inspired from having known her. Her legacy lives on in the SLO community and will always live on in our hearts.

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Gretchen’s Smile
A poem for Gretchen Noah, written by Dr. Andy Jones

I want to talk about Gretchen’s smile.

Not just because it was magnificent,

not just because I got to see it light up a conference room every two years,

but because her smile carried in it a sense of purpose,

a sense of momentum,

a sense that she had created something important

and that we were all part of it.

Gretchen embodied steadfast care for people who were exhausted,

for children whose small victories she knew how to read,

for families navigating what no one is ever prepared for,

for the work in front of her.

She believed in what must be done,

and then she did it.

Gretchen set goals for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation that most people would have quietly scaled back.

She did not scale back.

She leaned in.

She carried expansion forward through sheer will, tireless humor,

and an unmistakable smile that told you,

yes, this is ambitious, and yes, we are absolutely going to make it happen.

I see her at the back of a conference room,

arms crossed, watching families talk,

our representative and our witness —

already thinking about what else they might need,

already planning what comes next,

starting with endowments from everyone.

I see her late at night with a laptop open,

numbers on the screen, Diet Coke nearby,

hatching plans, sending texts,

still working when everyone else has gone quiet,

raising money for children she would never meet,

raising hope for families she would never stop caring about.

I see her moving through crowded hotel ballrooms,

name badges swinging, voices overlapping,

and Gretchen somehow knowing every name, every story,

the longing of every parent, the burden of every caregiver,

the brave patience of every child.

I hear her on the phone,

calls that always ran long,

where the work and the friendship,

the agendas and the laughter, were never really separate,

just two parts of the same devotion.

Our president, Gretchen was the energy behind the family conferences.

She and Kate took the Foundation show on the road — again and again —

convincing pharmaceutical companies to invest,

inspiring doctors,

inspiring parents,

inspiring all of us.

I see her in a room of doctors and researchers,

not at the center of the circle,

but at its heart,

asking the questions that kept the human stakes visible,

never letting the work forget the children.

And I see her at the end of a long day,

after a successful event,

chairs stacked, lights dimmed,

Gretchen still standing there,

always the last to leave, smiling —

satisfied, grateful,

and already thinking forward.

We ache in her absence,

but what she built remains.

What she inspired remains.

What she made possible continues to unfold.

So, when we gather,

when we plan,

when we fundraise,

when we advocate,

when we care for families and children and one another,

we are still moving in Gretchen’s direction.

And if we do it with courage,

with ambition,

with laughter,

and with that same sense of resolve that once lived so naturally in her smile,

then we are doing the work the way she taught us to do it.

Thank you, Gretchen.

We will carry this forward.

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Because of the rain tonight, the New Year’s Eve Sudwerk pub quiz will take place inside at 2001 2nd Street in Davis. I invite you to join the regulars and irregulars for the social event of the week featuring 31 questions on a variety of topics you should know something about. Today’s pub quiz is over 1,000 words long, longer than usual because so much happened in 2025.

In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: national chains, categorized innovators, flagship facilities, provosts, geology in France, encores, non-volleyball Wilsons, six-letter words, Zillow findings, Great Scots, normal guys, hydrogen, consecutive games, LPs, Caribbean happenstances, incomes, music genres, boilers, ousters, motorcycles, famous battles, ESPN opinions, holiday traditions, Kentucky realizations, economic theories, moments dead people, ice babies, one-word titles that are barely words, trades, alliterative names, cinematic universes, alphabetical lists, food banks, cubs, Oscars, new jobs, pop charts, U.S. states, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.

For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 90 Patreon members now, including the new paid subscribers Christine, Bobby, Esther, James, Damian, Jim, and Meebles! I should write a question for Bobby. Thanks also to new subscribers Prescott, Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens. Hello to Bill and to Jude’s dad. Thanks in particular to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. Also, I sometimes remember to add an extra hint on Patreon. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

I also want to recognize those who visit my Substack the most often, including Luna, Jean, Ron, Myrna, and birthday girl Maria, to whom I send sustained compassion.

Best,

Dr. Andy

And now five questions on the same topic from a 2018 Christmas-era pub quiz. That week’s topic is 2018 Films with Four Words in their Titles. Notice that, atypically, I am providing the answers to these tricky questions from the last decade.

1. What are the four words in the title of the film that just enjoyed its second week at the top of the box office? Ralph Breaks the Internet

2. Animated, and largely forgotten by 2025, what is the second-highest grossing Benedict Cumberbatch film of 2018? Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch

3. What Chris Pratt film opened in more theatres than any other film released this year? Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

4. What film that features Dave Chapelle as George “Noodles” Stone has already won the National Board of Review Award for Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor? A Star is Born (2018)

5. What is the title of the most recent and probably last Insidious sequel, one that actually has the word “last” in its title? Insidious: The Last Key

And thus end our questions on 2018 Films with Four-Word Titles. And thus ends 2025, and this newsletter. See you in 2026. May it be a better year for all of us.