Annette Marie Kretzer

Annette Marie Kretzer died on September 18, 2025, at the age of 61. In 2004 she started showing symptoms of M.S. and was diagnosed with the disease a few years later. Although her nervous system progressively failed, her ability to think, communicate, and enjoy life remained a major strength to the end. But she grieved deeply that her children only knew her as a sick and changed woman.

She asked that we share the following.

~Life with severe MS is death in slow motion. First I fought it, then I feared it, and gingerly I came to embrace it. I thank my beloved family and dear friends for giving the final years of my life meaning and joy against all odds.

~P.S. It has grieved me deeply that my children only knew me as a sick and changed woman. If you have a moment please share a memory of me in English or German and email it to belowground.tom@gmail.com

Annette grew up in Dortmund, Germany, spending summers in Austria. She earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Göttingen in 1993. She then had postdoctoral appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oregon State University. In 2004 Annette became an Assistant Professor in the department of Environmental Biology at SUNY-ESF. She ran an actively funded research lab and taught both undergraduate and graduate students in various courses related to molecular evolution.

Annette loved the outdoors. She traveled through Canada and Alaska after her Diplom and took a trip to Fiji and New Zealand after her Ph.D. She climbed a 14,000 ft peak near Mt. Whitney and Yosemite’s Half Dome. She took a multi-day kayaking trip in Alaska’s Glacier Bay where she watched calving glaciers and both humpback and killer whales, all while paddling nearby.

Annette is survived by her husband Tom Horton, their children Victoria and Lucas, and her brother Stefan Kretzer.

Annette will be remembered as a wonderful person, always kind, sharp-witted, and spot-on about everything. She touched many lives. She will be missed!